The Folding Chair

Please join us for May 2013’s edition of The Folding Chair.  This month’s talented lineup features the following literary luminaries.

Cynthia Cruz was born in Germany and raised in Northern California. She is the author of The Glimmering Room (Four Way Books) and Ruin (Alice James Books), and is the recipient of fellowships from Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, and a Hodder Fellowship. Her poems have been published in the New Yorker, The Paris Review, Boston Review, American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review and others. She lives in Brooklyn.

Eric Nelson is a writer originally from New Jersey. His essays, criticism and fiction have appeared or are forthcoming in The Billfold, HTMLGIANT, chimes/SIRENS, Volume 1 Brooklyn, Quail Bell Magazine and Squawk Back, among others. His short story collection The Silk City Series was published by Knickerbocker Circus in 2010 and “The Walt Whitman House” was recently published as a book by the Crumpled Press. He is currently guest-editing the next issue of Five [Quarterly] and lives in Queens, New York.

Farrah Field is the author of Wolf and Pilot (Four Way Books), Rising (Four Way Books) and the chapbook Parents (Immaculate Disciples Press). Her poems and essays have appeared in many publications including Sixth Finch, Ploughshares, Harp & Altar, Lit, Typo, La Petite Zine, and Drunken Boat. Two of her poems were selected by Kevin Young for The Best American Poetry 2011. Her essays and reviews have appeared in Harp & Altar and Coldfront. She lives in Brooklyn where she co-hosts an event series called Yardmeter Editions. She occasionally blogs atadultish.blogspot.com and is co-owner of Berl’s Brooklyn Poetry Shop.

The Folding Chair is merry and free, but if you wish to take advantage of the wine, beer, and delicious food at Local 61, you’ll have to come correct with cash.

TO GET HERE:
61 Local, 61 Bergen St, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
Bergen St. (F/G) or Borough Hall (2,3,4,5)

THE FOLDING CHAIR ON TWITTER:
@foldingchairbk

LIKE OUR FACEBOOK PAGE
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Folding-Chair/167392426647430

Come celebrate The Folding Chair’s second anniversary!

Tuesday, April 2^nd at 7:30 pm, upstairs at 61 Local (61 Bergen Street, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn)

Birthday Toast Courtesy of 61 Local

& Readings by

Will Schutt, Craig Morgan Teicher, Douglas Watson, and Christine Schutt

WILL SCHUTT is the author of Westerly, selected by Carl Phillips for the 2012 Yale Series of Younger Poets Award. A graduate of Oberlin College and Hollins University, he is the recipient of fellowships from the James Merrill House, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and the Stadler Center for Poetry at Bucknell University. His poems and translations have appeared in Agni, FIELD, The New Republic, The Southern Review and elsewhere. More information can be found at his website: www.wschutt.com.

CRAIG MORGAN TEICHER is the author of three books, most recently To Keep Love Blurry (BOA 2012). He works at Publishers Weekly, reviews widely, and lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children. More information can be found at his website: www.craigmorganteicher.com.

DOUGLAS WATSON will read from his debut collection of stories, The Era of Not Quite, winner of the BOA Editions Short Fiction Prize. His stories have appeared or will soon appear in One Story, Fifty-two Stories, Tin House (Flash Fridays), Ecotone, Salt Hill, Sou’wester, and other publications. In June, at One Story’s annual Literary Debutante Ball, he will be, for the first time in his life, a debutante. He holds an MFA in fiction from Ohio State University, an MA in history from Brown University, and a BA in something or other from Swarthmore College. He lives in Brooklyn and works for Time magazine. More information can be found at his website: douglaswatsonfiction.com

CHRISTINE SCHUTT is the author of two short story collections and three novels. Her first novel, Florida, was a National Book Award finalist; her second novel, All Souls, a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize. A third novel, Prosperous Friends, was published by Grove/Atlantic in fall of 2012. Among other honors, Schutt has twice won the O.Henry Short Story Prize. She is the recipient of the New York Foundation of the Arts and Guggenheim Fellowships. Schutt is a senior editor of NOON, a literary annual, and lives and teaches in New York.

The Ides of March are (almost) upon us, so friends, writers, bibliophiles please join us on Tuesday, March 5, 7:30 at 61 Local for March 2013’s edition of The Folding Chair.  This month, TFC features Henry Alford, Marian Lorraine and Amelia Kahaney.

HENRY ALFORD is the author of “Would It Kill You to Stop Doing That?: A Modern Guide to Manners.”  He writes a monthly column about manners for the New York Times.  He contributes humor to the New Yorker’s website, and can be heard on the public radio show “Studio 360.”  He has also written a book about the wisdom of the elderly (“How to Live”), a humor collection (“Municipal Bondage”), and an account of his failed acting career (“Big Kiss”) which won a Thurber Prize.

MARIAN LORRAINE’s work has appeared in the New York Press, Joey Magazine, the L Magazine and Blackbook, as well as on Gawker, and Nerve.com. She majored in philosophy, works as a cocktail waitress and lives in a haunted hotel.

AMELIA KAHANEY is the author of The Brokenhearted, the first book in a
young adult novel series to be published by Harper Collins in November
2013. Her short stories have appeared in Best American Nonrequired
Reading, One Story, Crazyhorse, and other publications, some of which
are Canadian. She has taught writing at Brooklyn College, The New
School, and the Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop. She also makes a
mean guacamole.

The Folding Chair is merry and free, but if you wish to take advantage of the wine, beer, and delicious food at Local 61, you’ll have to come correct with cash.

TO GET HERE:
61 Local, 61 Bergen St, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
Bergen St. (F/G) or Borough Hall (2,3,4,5)

THE FOLDING CHAIR ON TWITTER:
@foldingchairbk

and coming soon: a website relaunch!

LIKE OUR FACEBOOK PAGE
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Folding-Chair/167392426647430

Come in from the cold on Tuesday, February 5, 7:30 at 61 Local for February 2013’s edition of The Folding Chair.  This month, TFC features Diane Cook, John Kenney and Tanya Rey.

DIANE COOK’s writing is forthcoming in Guernica and Salt Hill. She won the 2012 Italo Calvino Prize for fabulist fiction and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize for work in Redivider. She was a producer for public radio’s This American Life and has been awarded residencies at Yaddo, The Albee Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, and the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. She is currently working on a novel.

JOHN KENNEY has worked as a copywriter in New York for 17 years. He has been a contributor to The New Yorker’s Shouts & Murmurs since 1999. His first novel, Truth In Advertising, was released in January by Touchstone/Simon&Schuster.

TANYA REY’s work has appeared in The Chattahoochee Review and online at McSweeney’s. She holds an MFA degree in fiction from New York University and has received fellowships from the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, UCross Foundation, and Blue Mountain Center. She has worked as managing editor of One Story magazine and currently works as a biographer of people with Traumatic Brain Injury. She was born and raised in Miami, Florida and now lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she often complains about the winter.

The Folding Chair is merry and free, but if you wish to take advantage of the wine, beer, and delicious food at Local 61, you’ll have to come correct with cash.

TO GET HERE:
61 Local, 61 Bergen St, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
Bergen St. (F/G) or Borough Hall (2,3,4,5)

THE FOLDING CHAIR ON TWITTER:
@foldingchairbk

and coming soon: a website relaunch!

LIKE OUR FACEBOOK PAGE
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Folding-Chair/167392426647430

Please join us to ring in another year with TFC! Tuesday, January 8th, 7:30 pm upstairs at the one and only 61 Local. This month we feature the talents of NICOLE FIX, TED DODSON and JUDY BATALION:

NICOLE FIX received an Elizabeth George Foundation Grant and has been awarded fellowships from Can Serrat International Artist Residency, Drisha Institute and Summer Literary Seminars. Recent publications include Post Road Magazine and Go Magazine. Nicole is currently writing a novel. 

TED DODSON is the co-founder and editor of the filmed journal On the Escape, a curator for the Triptych Reading Series, and an editor and the events coordinator for Futurepoem. Select publications can be found in The Death and Life of American Cities, la fovea, SET, Tim, and Well Greased, and an untitled chapbook is forthcoming from Diez in early 2013.

JUDY BATALION’s personal essays have appeared or are forthcoming in The New York Times, Salon, The Jerusalem Post, Babble, Nerve, The Frisky and many others. A former art curator with a background in stand-up comedy, Judy also writes cultural criticism, arts reviews, and humor pieces. In March, she will begin teaching essay writing at mediabistro.

The Folding Chair is merry and free, but if you wish to take advantage of the wine, beer, and delicious food at Local 61, you’ll have to come correct with cash.

TO GET HERE:
61 Local, 61 Bergen St, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
Bergen St. (F/G) or Borough Hall (2,3,4,5)

THE FOLDING CHAIR ON TWITTER:
@foldingchairbk

and coming soon: a website relaunch!

LIKE OUR FACEBOOK PAGE
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Folding-Chair/167392426647430

MATTHEW GOODMAN’s debut novel, Hold Love Strong, was published by Touchstone Fireside (Simon and Schuster). The novel was chosen by Barnes and Noble as a Discover Great New Writers Book and by USA Today as a New Voices Pick. From 2008-2011, he was an Assistant Editor on Pen America’s Pen Journal. He teaches Multicultural American Literature and Creative Writing at Hunter College. Recent writing has been published by Bomb Magazine, Pen America, Tikkun, and Canteen Magazine.

Please join us on Tuesday, November 13 for the the next installment of The Folding Chair. Please note that this reading takes place on the second Tuesday of the month, rather than the usual first, since November 6 is Election Day. We encourage everyone to get out and VOTE!

The Folding Chair is free, but if you wish to take advantage of the wine, beer, and delicious food at Local 61, you’ll have to come correct with cash.
This month we feature the talents of:

MELLINI KANTAYYA is an actor and writer living in Brooklyn, NY. Her recent independent film credits include the Untitled Drake Doremus Project (opposite Amy Ryan and Guy Pierce) and Colin Hearts Kay (Brooklyn International Film Festival, et al).  She has appeared on the television show Nurse Jackie and had a recurring supporting role on the daytime serial One Life to Live from 2005-2011. Her book, Actor. Writer. Whatever. (essays on my rise to the top of the bottom of the entertainment industry), will be released early 2013 by Ako Dako Press.

DANICA NOVGORODOFF/ DAWN LANDES

DANICA NOVGORODOFF is a painter, comic book artist, and writer from Kentucky who currently lives in Brooklyn. She has published three graphic novels: A Late Freeze, Slow Storm, and Refresh, Refresh, which was included in Best American Comics 2011. Her fourth graphic novel, The Undertaking of Lily Chen, is forthcoming from First Second Books in 2014.

DAWN LANDES is an American singer-songwriter and musician originally from Louisville, Kentucky. Her career as an international recording artist includes three critically acclaimed albums: Dawn’s Music (2005), Fireproof (2008) and Sweetheart Rodeo (2010).  In support of her albums, Landes has toured extensively in the US, Europe and around the world, often sharing the stage with artists such as Ray Lamontagne, Feist, Andrew Bird and Suzanne Vega. Her music has been featured in popular films and TV shows, including Bored to Death, House, Gossip Girl and United States of Tara. She composed original scores for two feature films and has lent her to voice to various musical endeavors including appearances with The American Songbook Series and the Boston Pops. Her latest album, “Mal Habillée,” a collection of original french songs was released this summer in interactive ebook form with illustrations by the artist Danica Novgorodoff to accompany the text.

www.dawnLandes.com
facebook.com/dawnlandes
twitter.com/dawnlandes

KATIE WUDEL is a writer, educator, and arts advocate making her home in the wilds of Morningside Heights. Her writing has appeared in Tin House, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Prairie Schooner, The Rumpus, Monkeybicycle, the Ploughshares blog, and many other publications. Katie has taught creative writing at San Francisco’s School of the Arts and the University of Nebraska-Omaha Writer’s Workshop, and has been awarded scholarships and fellowships from Hedgebrook, the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and Summer Literary Seminars. In 2011, her story “Tongueless” was one of Wigleaf’s Top [Very] Short Fictions. You can find it, along with more of her work, at katiewudel.com.

The Folding Chair is (as ever) free, but bring your allowance for local kombucha/ beer/ wine and small plates. The program starts at 7:30 sharp and lasts about an hour.

TO GET HERE:

61 Local, 61 Bergen St, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn

Bergen St. (F/G) or Borough Hall (2,3,4,5)

THE FOLDING CHAIR ON TWITTER:

@foldingchairbk

JAN BINDAS-TENNEY is mostly an organizer.  She spent many years going on strike in Allentown, Pennsylvania and driving circles around New Jersey trying to find lunch ladies to form a union.  Now she is organizing about violence and space here in New York City. Jan is also a writer. Her writing has appeared in the mailboxes of dear friends and lovers: urgent communications on ripped up pieces of notebook paper sent from China, New Mexico, Northern California, her living room.  Jan is queer, working class; she loves to swim.  She has lived in Brooklyn for six years and grew up in the mountains of Northern New Hampshire.

MICHAEL HOLLANDER stopped writing in his 20s when he became a relatively settled person. By his mid 40s he had more or less stopped typing. Every once in a while he throws off an aphorism. He is the author of several unexpected very short works in progress known collectively as Forty Microseconds of Solitude and an as of yet unnamed comic strip. This is his first public reading since 1988.

CARLEY MOORE’s poetry and essays have been published or are forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Aufgabe, Drunken Boat, Fence, and Swink. She teaches writing in the Liberal Studies Program at New York University and is a Book Review Editor for the website, Writing in Public.  Her debut young adult novel, The Stalker Chronicles, was published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux in 2012.  You can find her blogging and see more of her work at:  www.carleymoorewrites.com.

The Folding Chair is (as ever) free, but bring your allowance for local kombucha/ beer/ wine and small plates.

TO GET HERE:

61 Local, 61 Bergen St, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn

Bergen St. (F/G) or Borough Hall (2,3,4,5)

THE FOLDING CHAIR ON TWITTER:

@foldingchairbk

ELIZABETH KADETSKY’s personal essays have appeared in the New York Times, Guernica, Antioch Review, Agni and elsewhere, and her short stories have been chosen for a Pushcart Prize, Best New American Voices and Best American Short Stories notable stories. She has been a fellow at MacDowell Colony, Ucross Foundation, Djerassi Resident Artists Program and the St. James Centre for Creativity in Malta. She began studying yoga in college, and went on to live in India as a Fulbright scholar in creative writing while studying with the yogi BKS Iyengar. Her experiences became the subject of her first memoir, published with Little Brown in 2004 and scheduled for rEprint with Dzanc Books. She is director of creative writing at Penn State.

ERIN LENNOX is a nice girl and a writer / comedian based in Brooklyn, NY. She is originally from Chapel Hill, NC and has been in exactly 3 bar fights. Since starting stand up in 2010, Erin has performed at the Bridgetown Comedy Festival, the Women in Comedy Festival, the Cape Fear Comedy Festival, the Out of Bounds Comedy Festival, and at an impromptu roast of her grandfather. She regularly performs all over New York and wherever someone in her family is getting married. She hosts a monthly variety show called I LIKE YOU TOO with girl band beauties the Bandana Splits. Erin also opens for bands a lot cause they don’t know much about comedy. In her spare time Erin writes for a lot of the commercials you probably hate.

JOSHUA FURST’s novel The Sabotage Café was named to the 2007 year-end best-of lists of the Chicago Tribune, the Rocky Mountain News and the Philadelphia City Paper, as well as being awarded the 2008 Grub Street Fiction Prize. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed book of stories, Short People. His work has been published in The Chicago Tribune, Esquire, Salon, Nerve, Conjunctions, PEN America, The Jewish Daily Forward, and BOMB among many other journals and periodicals and been given citations for notable achievement by The Best American Short Stories and The O’Henry Awards. Among the accolades his work has received are a 2001-2002 James Michener-Paul Engle Fellowship from the James Michener Foundation/Copernicus Society of America and a Chicago Tribune Nelson Algren Award, and his criticism for the Forward has received a Rockower Award and been nominated for a 2011 Society of Professional Journalists’ Deadline Club Award. His plays include Whimper, Myn and The Ellipse and Other Shapes. He teaches at The New School’s Eugene Lang College and is a founding member of the publishing collective Kristiania.

The Folding Chair is (as ever) free, but bring your allowance for local kombucha/ beer/ wine and small plates.

TO GET HERE:
61 Local, 61 Bergen St, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
Bergen St. (F/G) or Borough Hall (2,3,4,5)

THE FOLDING CHAIR ON TWITTER:
@foldingchairbk

LIKE OUR FACEBOOK PAGE
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Folding-Chair/167392426647430