Tomorrow night the Paramount is hosting The Moth, a reading series from New York that is now on the road. Tomorrow's presentation will feature readers on the following topic - "Made to Be Broken: Stories About Disobedience." Contributors to this reading include Lt. Dan Choi, Elna Baker, Mike Daisey and George Dawes. Former Austinist columnist Spike Gillespie submitted a piece but will not be performing with the program after all, a choice she discusses on her blog. 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 ›

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 ›

THURSDAY [3] film • Austin Film Festival screens "The Ballad of A.J Weberman" at Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek (7:30pm Free/$4 Members/General) art • West End Gallery Night at Participating Galleries (Until 8pm) art • Blanton Museum of Art Public Tour: An Introduction to Prints at Blanton Museum of Art, MLK at Congress (7-8pm) books • Book Release Party: Collecting the Imagination: The First Fifty Years of the Ransom Center at The Harry Ransom Center (7:00pm)... more ›

Austinite and UT grad Kelley Caleb Hunt was just selected as the winner of a national online storytelling contest, after submitting the hilarious video narrative above about his experience applying for an "international vegetable courier" gig. The contest--sponsored by TNT cable network, MySpace, and NYC nonprofit storytelling group The Moth--was judged by a panel that included actress Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under) and author/humorist Andy Borowitz (The Borowitz Report). As the winning storytelling, Hunt... more ›