LA-Lit interviews Catherine Daly
Sunday, November 11 at 5pm
At Betalevel

We’d like to invite you to a live radio recording, reading & conversation this coming Sunday, November 11 at 5 p.m. at Betalevel in Chinatown. Catherine Daly will be the featured writer on LA-lit, a radio show co-curated by Mathew Timmons & Stephanie Rioux. The show (& hence the recording) lasts a little over an hour and will be about 30 minutes of reading & about 30 minutes of questions & answers/further questions—alternating between the two modes in hopes of creating a space for dynamic conversation.

Catherine Daly is author of the forthcoming Vauxhall (Shearsman, 08) and Heavy Rotation (BlazeVox, 07) as well as five other fabulous books (DaDaDa, Locket, To Delite and Instruct, Paper Craft, and Chanteuse / Cantatrice), some eBooks and eChaps (ex., Paper Craft (again), Secret Kitty, Kittenhood, Boy Girl Boy, The Last Canto, Glosses, Make-Up), and many chapbooks and ephemeral publications. While she founded i.e. Press at about the same she moved to Los Angeles, she just began publishing books. She began reviewing and writing essays about poetry about ten years ago, too. She earned an MFA about 17 years ago. She has curated reading series in Hartford, New York, and Los Angeles. She has been a car hop, deejay, astrologer, building contractor, and senior technology manager. She is married to a writer, Ron Burch, and her pet is a parrot, Po.

LA-Lit interviews Eileen Myles
Sunday, November 4 at 5pm
At Betalevel

We’d like to invite you to a live radio recording, reading & conversation this coming Sunday, November 4 at 5 p.m. at Betalevel in Chinatown. Eileen Myles will be the featured writer on LA-lit, a radio show co-curated by Mathew Timmons & Stephanie Rioux. The show (& hence the recording) lasts a little over an hour and will be about 30 minutes of reading & about 30 minutes of questions & answers/further questions—alternating between the two modes in hopes of creating a space for dynamic conversation.

In Eileen Myles’ latest book, Sorry, Tree, she describes “some nature” as well as the transmigration of souls from the east coast to the west. Bust Magazine calls Myles “the rock star of modern poetry” and Holland Cotter in The New York Times describes her as “a cult figure to a generation of post-punk females forming their own literary avant garde.” Eileen arrived in New York after college, (U. Mass. (Boston)) gaining the friendship of Allen Ginsberg, working for poet James Schuyler, becoming a habitue of the household of Ted Berrigan and Alice Notley and generally being a notable part of the turbulent punk and art scene that animated Manhattan’s East Village, giving her first reading at CBGB’s in 1974. A virtuoso performer of her work – she’s read and performed at colleges, performance spaces, and bookstores across North America as well as in Europe, Iceland, Ireland and Russia. She’s published more than 20 volumes of poetry, fiction, articles, plays and libretti including Hell (an opera with composer Michael Webster, 2004) Skies, (2001), on my way, (2001), Cool for You, (a novel, 2000), School of Fish, (1997), Maxfield Parrish, (1995), Not Me, (1991), and Chelsea Girls, (stories, 1994). In 1995, with Liz Kotz, she edited The New Fuck You/adventures in Lesbian Reading (Semiotext(e). In 1992 she conducted an openly female write-in campaign for President of the United States. In the 80s she was Artistic Director of St. Mark’s Poetry Project. In ‘97 and again in 2007 Eileen toured with Sister Spit, a post-punk female performance troupe. She has been a professor of writing at UCSD since 2002. In 2007 she received The Andy Warhol/Creative Capital art writing fellowship. She contributes to a wide number of publications including Bookforum, the Believer, and lately Cabinet.

LA-Lit: Two Days, Two Interviews
Demosthenes Agrafiotis & Masha Tupitsyn
Thursday, October 18 & Friday, October 19 at 8pm
At Betalevel

We’d like to invite you to enjoy Two Interviews in Two Days with LA-Lit. Come down for live radio, readings & conversation this coming Thursday, October 18 & Friday, October 19 at 8pm at Betalevel in Chinatown. Demosthenes Agrafiotis will be the featured writer on Thursday & Masha Tupitsyn will be the featured writer on Friday. LA-Lit, co-curated by Mathew Timmons & Stephanie Rioux, lasts a little over an hour and will be about 30 minutes of reading & about 30 minutes of questions & answers/further questions—alternating between the two modes in hopes of creating a space for dynamic conversation.

LA-Lit interviews Demosthenes Agrafiotis
Thursday, October 18 at 8pm
Demosthenes Agrafiotis is an artist, poet, photographer, editor and sociologist based in Athens, Greece. Agrafiotis is the author of over 13 books of poetry, including a collaboration with Jerome Rothenberg, An Oracle for Delphi (Membrane Press, 1995). Between 1980 and 1990 he edited the Athens-based art & literary journal Clinamen, which featured translations of several influential American poets into Greek for the first time. His first book to appear in English, Chinese Notebook, is currently being translated by John and Angelos Sakkis.

LA-Lit interviews Masha Tupitsyn
Friday, October 19 at 8pm
Masha Tupitsyn is a fiction writer and feminist critic who lives in New York City. She received her MA in Literature and Cultural Theory from the University of Sussex in England. In 2004, she worked as the Assistant Literary Editor at BOMB Magazine. She was a 2005 finalist for the Panliterary Award for Fiction, sponsored by Drunken Boat. Her fiction and criticism has been published or is forthcoming in the anthology Wreckage of Reason: XXperimental Women Writers Writing in the 21st Century, Make/Shift, Bookforum, Fence , Five Fingers Review, NYFA Current, Unpleasant Event Schedule, How2, and Nth Position. She is the author of Beauty Talk & Monsters, a collection of film-based stories (Semiotext(e) Press, 2007). She is currently working on a new book, Star Notes.

Here’s a somewhat tentative / somewhat set schedule of what’s coming up on LA-Lit this fall:
Thursday, October 18 at 8pm – Demosthenes Agrafiotis
Friday, October 19 at 8pm – Masha Tupitsyn
Sunday, November 4 at 5pm – Eileen Myles
Sunday, November 11 at 5pm – Catherine Daly
Sunday, December 2 at 1pm – Nada Gordon
plus a special reading to follow at 6pm

We’re very excited about this fall – hope you are too.

LA-Lit interviews Christine Wertheim
Sunday, September 23 at 5pm
At Betalevel

We’d like to invite you to a live radio recording, reading & conversation this coming Sunday, September 23 at 5 p.m. at Betalevel in Chinatown. Christine Wertheim will be the featured writer on LA-lit, a radio show co-curated by Mathew Timmons & Stephanie Rioux. The show (& hence the recording) lasts a little over an hour and will be about 30 minutes of reading & about 30 minutes of questions & answers/further questions—alternating between the two modes in hopes of creating a space for dynamic conversation.

Christine Wertheim writes poetics and aesthetic criticism. Her book “+|’me’S-pace,” was published in 2007 by Les Figues Press. Other work has appeared in La Petite Zine, Five Fingers Review, Cabinet, Open Letter, Art History vs Aesthetics, and X-TRA. She co-organizes an annual writing conference whose publications are Séance (2006), and The Noulipian Analects (2007), and co-directs The Institute For Figuring. She teaches writing, literature and feminisms in the school of Critical Studies at CalArts.

LA-Lit interviews Lee Ann Brown
Sunday, June 24 at 5pm
At Betalevel

We’d like to invite you to a live radio recording, reading & conversation this coming Sunday June 24 at 5 p.m. at Betalevel in Chinatown. Lee Ann Brown will be the featured writer on LA-lit, a radio show co-curated by Mathew Timmons & Stephanie Rioux. The show (& hence the recording) lasts a little over an hour and will be about 30 minutes of reading & about 30 minutes of questions & answers/further questions – alternating between the two modes in hopes of creating a space for dynamic conversation.

For information about attending the recording go here.

Lee Ann Brown is Assistant Professor of English at St. John’s University in New York City. A poet and filmmaker, her first book, Polyverse (Sun & Moon, 1999), won the New American Poetry Series Award. Her second book, The Sleep That Changed Everything, appeared in 2003 from Wesleyan. She is also the founder and editor of the small press, Tender Buttons.

LA-Lit interviews Mark von Schlegell
Sunday, April 15 at 3pm
At Betalevel

We’d like to invite you to a live radio recording, reading & conversation this coming Sunday April 15 at 3 p.m. at Betalevel in Chinatown. Mark von Schlegell will be the featured writer on LA-lit, a radio show co-curated by Mathew Timmons & Stephanie Rioux. The show (& hence the recording) lasts a little over an hour and will be about 30 minutes of reading & about 30 minutes of questions & answers/further questions – alternating between the two modes in hopes of creating a space for dynamic conversation.

For information about attending the recording go here.

Mark von Schlegell’s novel Venusia, first volume of System/Series, was issued in late 2005 by M.I.T./Semiotext(e). The book gained controversial notice and the tour led to his being invited to 2006’s World Science Fiction Conference, where he appeared on 13 panels. Mark’s short science fiction has been included in the anthologies Juncture (Soft Skull Press) and Futureways (Arsenal Pulp) and appears regularly in the international art underground. He has published cultural criticism in Art/Text, Flash Art, NYFA Quarterly, X-tra and Art on Paper. Mark holds a PhD in English from NYU and has taught at NYU, CalArts, The San Francisco Art Institute, L.A. City College and City College, New York. He’s lectured on SF at Harvard, the Newton Correctional Facility near Jasper, Iowa and the Palais Tokyo in Paris. He’s also worked as a cartographer, plumber’s assistant, security guard, archivist and librarian. He currently divides his time between Los Angeles and Cologne, writing and teaching. Recent projects include editing the final issue of insurrectionist L.A. newsletter The Rambler, “You Are Leila Waddell” — world’s first-ever WhoreTML document, and http://highwichita.com — an expanding mini-verse based on his 2006 novelette “High Wichita.” Mercury Station, the 2nd volume of System/Series, is nearing completion.

LA-Lit interviewed Sawako Nakayasu on Sunday, December 10th at 5pm.

Sawako Nakayasu is currently writing about, through, on, around and with ants and other insects, but mostly ants. She was born in Yokohama, Japan, and has lived mostly in the US since the age of six. Her books include Insect Country, (A)Nothing fictional but the accuracy or arrangement (she, (Quale Press), So we have been given time Or, (Verse Press), and Clutch (Tinfish chapbook, 2002). She is currently working on an insect-based collaborative project featuring ants, while editing the journal Factorial, which often features contemporary Japanese poetry in English translation. In 2006 she received a Witter Bynner Foundation poetry translator residency at the Santa Fe Art Institute and a PEN Translation Fund Grant for translations of Chika Sagawa and Takashi Hiraide, respectively. Her own writing has been translated into Japanese and Swedish, and Arabic.

LA-Lit interviewed Sawako Nakayasu on Sunday, December 10th at 5pm.

Sawako Nakayasu is currently writing about, through, on, around and with ants and other insects, but mostly ants. She was born in Yokohama, Japan, and has lived mostly in the US since the age of six. Her books include Insect Country, (A)Nothing fictional but the accuracy or arrangement (she, (Quale Press), So we have been given time Or, (Verse Press), and Clutch (Tinfish chapbook, 2002). She is currently working on an insect-based collaborative project featuring ants, while editing the journal Factorial, which often features contemporary Japanese poetry in English translation. In 2006 she received a Witter Bynner Foundation poetry translator residency at the Santa Fe Art Institute and a PEN Translation Fund Grant for translations of Chika Sagawa and Takashi Hiraide, respectively. Her own writing has been translated into Japanese and Swedish, and Arabic.

Our podcast of LA-Lit 17b: Bay Poetics + a Salon-Podcast is now online. The interview was originally recorded on Saturday, December 2 at 1pm.

If you need information about how to subscribe to our podcast go here.

Writers Del Ray Cross, Susan Gevirtz, Suzanne Stein, Stephanie Young and Magdalena Zurawski (whose work appears in the new anthology Bay Poetics edited by Stephanie Young) were our guests.

After the recording of LA-Lit, visiting and local writers held an informal Salon with our guests until 6pm.

Del Ray Cross edits Shampoo a sudsy online literary magazine, and thrives in San Francisco. He has a chapbook and a half available from Pressed Wafer (including Cinema Yosemite) and a couple postcard books from Poetry Espresso (with Stephanie Young and Cassie Lewis).

Susan Gevirtz was an associate editor of HOW(ever) a journal of modernist/innovative directions in women’s poetry and scholarship, on the editorial advisory board of the journal Avec, and the online journal HOW2. Her books include Hourglass Transcripts, Burning Deck, 2001, Spelt, collaboration with Myung Mi Kim, a+bend press, 1999; Black Box Cutaway, Kelsey Street Press, 1999; Narrative’s Journey: The Fiction and Film Writing of Dorothy Richardson, Peter Lang, 1996; PROSTHESIS : : CAESAREA, Potes and Poets, 1994; Taken Place, Reality Street, 1993; Linen minus, Avenue B, 1992; and Domino: point of entry, Leave Books, 1992.

Suzanne Stein’s works have appeared in the publications Mirage #4/Period[ical], Commonweal, Small Town, The Bay Area Poetry Anthology, and at the venues Refusalon Gallery, the San Francisco Exploratorium, the Berkeley Art Center, Outpost for Contemporary Art, and elsewhere. She is the former co-director and film curator of four walls gallery, San Francisco.

Stephanie Young lives in Oakland and works at Mills College, but she’s also a resident of the internet, and you can find her there at The Well Nourished Moon. She is a board member at Small Press Traffic, San Francisco’s 30-year-old literary arts center. She also hosted a popular series of poetry readings at her house in Oakland for several years, and is the editor of BAY POETICS, an anthology out from Faux Press. Her writing has been published in Pettycoat Relaxer, Five Fingers Review, VeRT, Shampoo, Mirage Period(ical), Cypress Magazine, LIT, can we have our ball back? and Combo.

Magdalena Zurawski is currently working on a novel called The Bruise and she keeps a blog at Minor Americans. She says of herself “I was born in Newark NJ and grew up in Edison NJ but Providence RI feels like my hometown more than any place else because that’s where I started having sex and meeting poets and being a real person in a real world. My major poetic influences are Jack Spicer, Bruce Springsteen and Immanuel Kant (but only the 3rd critique). Early Bruce Springsteen albums make me happier than anything on earth (well, as happy as really really good poetry readings).”