Austinist Family Reading [Reading Preview]
Basically the idea behind our first Austinist Family Reading is this - join us for happy hour at Club Deville to hang and hear some of our site's longstanding (or shortstanding) writers break out of their mold for a bit. You've heard us dish on film and art and food and music, but there's more to us, like possibly prose and poetry and funny stories and etc.! This gathering will hopefully have the intimacy and fun of any good time out with pals, without the awkwardness and T.M.I. of an open-mic night. Guess we'll see!
We're planning on having eleven writers spew verbal knowledge at you over the course of a few hours, and during the intermissions we'll have talk and laptop DJing from Justin Cox. Our venerable leader and planned music-player DJ Ladypants (you may know her as Paige Maguire) is out of commission from throwing her back playa-hata flippin', so you'll have to patiently wait for her next residency at the Chain Drive to hear her work.
Anyway, back to the reading. Here's the who's who.
Stephanie Beasley - This Austin native(!) who most of us refer to as Steph is a straight-shooter with longstanding experience in local lore and cracking wise. You have seen her around, and if you haven't you're doing something wrong. [twitter]
John Campbell - Books writer John Campbell is also a poet who earned his M.A. at UNT, where he also waded through other people's rhymes while running the American Literary Review's annual poetry contest.
Nick Courtright - Nick is our Interviews editor, and prior to that he worked hard for the music section. Also a poet, he has a chapbook out with Blue Hour Press, and work published in Southern Review, Boston Review, and more. [poetsandwriters]
Ralph Hardesty - Ralph is a books/theater writer who also co-runs The Encyclopedia Show, Austin edition. He can be serious, and he can be hilarious. Throw in the beret he promises to wear, and you've got a triple threat.
William Mills - Music writer for the Austinist and contributor to Austin Monthly and Spin, Will was once dunked for charity.
Wendy Mitchell - Musician and writer Wendy Mitchell enlightened Austinist readers with her "Hello, My Name Is" column, in which she took an anthropological approach to local iterations of naked yoga and Satanists. She runs The S.A.R.F.
Elizabeth Nowrouz - Elizabeth is a newer addition to the Austinist crew. Her bio states that she's a "writer, runner, eater of avocados," which makes for a pretty excellent trio of interests.
Samantha Pitchel - Busy writing for us, Thrillist and the Texas Travesty, Pitchel covers comedy and improv and works with the New Movement Theater on a variety of projects.
Adam Schragin - And, me. I'm the books and music editor here, and some of my other work can be found here.
Sarah Wambold - Sarah is a books writer, and a great interview with her can be found here.
Siobhan Welch - Finally, coming in at "We," Siobhan Welch writes fiction and poetry, and has done work for Pop Matters, Bookslut and more. [website]
Please join us - the drink of the hour(s) will be Jameson and orange juice, which tastes pretty good, really.
Mucho thanks to Paige, Adi, Justin, and all of our readers!
