On Tuesday, The Austin Bat Cave is hosting a screening of the film Ice Storm with Rick Moody, upon whose novel the Ang Lee film is based, all of which follows a discussion of the book with Moody and Evan Smith. The event takes place at the Blanton Auditorium, will also feature cocktails, and costs fifty bucks. more ›

The full calendar for this year’s Homeslice Carnival has been released! Head on down to 1415 South Congress this Saturday, 11/19, from 12-9pm for a slew of family-oriented, pizza-lovin’ fun. A midway, open from noon until 6, will feature The House of Beauty, an ol’ fashioned Picture Booth, Pee Wee Pizzaiolo, and a classis Bouncy House for the kids. All proceeds benefit Austin Bat Cave, a non-profit writing program for Austin youth. more ›

Kickstarter is thick with Austin-centric projects currently. Of special note - the Hand and Wing anthology from Austin Bat Cave is so close to being funded, as is Aimee Bobruk's hopefully forthcoming album, which she'll be working on with icon Brian Beattie. Also worth noting is a project by "Steampunk Romance," author Olivia Gray, who is trying to raise funds to bring her young adult book The Zombies of Mesmer into print, as well as an anthology of her work she's going to call Caught in the Cogs. more ›

Austin Bat Cave is a non-profit organization designed to instruct children how to safely find and handle bats in the finer points of creative writing. To that end they hold workshops, get visited by rock stars, prime future journalists, and make compilation albums with help from local bands. more ›

The admirable nonprofit Austin Bat Cave, which is responsible both for awesome readings in town as well as for hosting amazing youth writing workshops, needs your help. more ›

Make something special out of this Thursday night and buy a lottery ticket on your way over to Austin Bat Cave's Story Department reading series, where the theme is LUCK and the beer is free! You'll not only get to hear great local storytellers read their original pieces, you'll do a good deed as well, as the $10 admission will help the continuation of their free writing center and tutoring program for kids. Kids, people...drink and be merry for the kids! more ›

The Story Department, in its never-ending quest to bring you Austin’s best in adult (read: 21+) storytelling and free (!) beer, is throwing another Austin Bat Cave benefit tonight at 7:30 at Austin Art + Music Partnership’s warehouse on West Monroe. more ›

OK, the Story Department—Austin’s Moth-inspired storytelling series—was cool before, but now it has free beer? Come on. Tonight at the Austin Art + Music Partnership’s warehouse space on West Monroe, the latest edition of one of the coolest literary-type things in town will happen, as a group of contributors will share stories on the topic of “Family Dinner.” Oh, the horrific, frustrating, and disturbing things that happen when you put family and food together. Tonight’s participants include Roy Janik, Amy Samet, Tami Nelson, and Erika McNichol. It’s sort of like a reading except that there’s no reading—just people talking about true things that happened to them, with no notes, limited to five minutes. more ›

Readings can be pretty stiff events. Even at their best, you might be listening to an exceptional author reading some new work but the experience isn’t typically much different from reading a book the old-fashioned way - on a phone or a kindle. Readings can grow dull when stories are read verbatim and monotone right off of the page, which is why The Story Department is such an exciting challenge for contributors and such a treat for audiences: it’s a true story, no-notes, “reading” series. more ›

Way back in May, before the thermometer was stuck at 100 degrees, Aaron Behrens of Ghostland Observatory paid a visit to Austin Bat Cave, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center that provides youth with opportunities to develop their creative and expository writing skills. Behrens spoke to a group of juniors and seniors at Anderson High School about channeling their inner stories through sundry mediums of creative expression—whether it be through writing, art or just being an outstanding citizen. He shared some of his rare acoustic material with the class as a way to break the ice before the high schoolers opened up and shared their own work. The workshop was part of a series of songwriting classes offered by Austin Bat Cave, which culminated in a concert where students were able to take their songs to the stage. more ›

Austin Bat Cave may be focused on helping kids develop their writing skills, but the non-profit also does a monthly event strictly for grown-ups. Inspired by The Moth, the NYC “storytelling organization,” ABC's The Story Department is a series of non-readings in which speakers tell stories on a selected theme. This month’s topic is “jobs, jobs, jobs,” which should prove fertile ground for the raconteurs participating this Thursday; there’s never a dearth of drama, loss, and triumph in the workplace—even if it’s often on a rather small scale. more ›

Austin Bat Cave, a non-profit writing and tutoring center for kids, recently hosted a Writing About Music workshop led by Austinist music writers. Students wrote reviews of several songs and performed interviews, with some students posing as musicians. We're so proud of the budding rock journalists that we decided to share some of the work from these little geniuses. Enjoy! more ›

We've talked a few times about the Austin Batcave, a non-profit organization that aims to further the writing skills (both creative and non-fiction) of children and teenagers. more ›

Remembering our time in the central Texas school system, we can tell you that while our public school teachers do a pretty darn good job of coaxing some interesting writing out of their students, sometimes they are expected to teach kiddos how to write to pass an exam, not necessarily to express themselves. The Austin Bat Cave hopes to augment their efforts through free after-school tutoring programs, in-school programs, book groups and special workshops that include music and songwriting. If anyone could get behind fostering expressive and creative writing in our youth, it would have been Van Zandt, who believed that achieving greatness required constant practice, that you had to continually try to achieve your best. more ›

Austin Bat Cave, a non-profit writing and tutoring center for kids, is hosting two free summer camps during these last few precious weeks of summer vacation. The organization focuses on connecting a diverse population of young writers and learners with a vibrant community of adult volunteers in Austin. more ›

On March 1st, Will Sheff and a couple members of his band Okkervil River gave a songwriting workshop at the Austin Bat Cave, a non-profit writing and tutoring center for kids. For two hours, Sheff talked with a group of high school students about song craft, listened to their compositions, and offered his encouragement and suggestions. The event culminated with a stripped-down performance of “Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe” featuring guitarist Lauren Gurgiolo and drummer Travis Nelsen, all of which was recounted by Rolling Stone magazine. more ›

On Sunday March 1st, local non-profit writing and tutoring center Austin Bat Cave will host a songwriting workshop featuring the homegrown talents of Will Sheff and Okkervil River. more ›