Wednesday, August 29, 2012

September 26, 7 pm: DadWagon Presents: Theodore Ross.


Join Theodore Ross for a reading from his new book, Am I a Jew?, recently published by Hudson Street Press.

“I was nine years old when my mother forced me to convert to Christianity…”

Theodore Ross was nine years old when he moved with his mother from New York City to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Once there his mother decided, for both personal and spiritual reasons, to have her family pretend not to be Jewish. Theodore went to an Episcopal school, where he studied the Bible, sang in the choir, and even took communion. Later, as an adult, he wondered: Am I still Jewish?

Seeking an answer, Ross travels around the country and to Israel, visiting a wide variety of Jewish communities. From “Crypto-Jews” in New Mexico and secluded ultra-devout Orthodox towns in upstate New York to a rare Classical Reform congregation in Kansas City, Theodore tries to understand himself by experiencing the diversity of Judasim.

Quirky and self-aware, introspective and impassioned, Am I a Jew? is a story about the universal struggle to define a relationship (or lack thereof) with religion.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Outside of Sleep launch reading September 19 at 7 pm.

Celebrate chapbooks, birthdays, and friendship!

Featuring readings by Brian Trimboli, Sarah V. Schweig, Eric Kocher, and Florencia Varela.

Eric Kocher received his MFA from the University of Houston. Some of his work has appeared or is forthcoming in A Public Space, Best New Poets 2011, Boston Review, and elsewhere. He currently teaches at the University of South Carolina Upstate.

Sarah V. Schweig is the author of the chapbook S (Dancing Girl Press). Her poems have appeared in BOMB Magazine, Boston Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Western Humanities Review, and Verse Daily, among others. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia and Columbia University, where her manuscript was the recipient of the David Craig Austen Memorial Award for poetry. She lives in Brooklyn.

Brian Trimboli has received fellowships to teach and study poetry from Bucknell University, Hartwick College, and New York University. He has poems published in Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, Third Coast, and Forklift, Ohio. He spends most of his time thinking of escape plans from potential apocalypses.

Florencia Varela's poems have been featured in journals such as Western Humanities Review, Washington Square Journal, Gulf Coast Review, Diagram, Drunken Boat, and Poetry Daily. She is the author of the chapbook Outside of Sleep (Dancing Girl Press, 2012). She completed her MFA at Columbia University, and currently lives in Brooklyn with a pup named Sue.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Bodega magazine launch party September 7 at 6 pm.

BODEGA is throwing a party to celebrate the launch of our first issue!

EMMA STRAUB will be reading from her new book, Laura Lamont's Life In Pictures. ADAM SOLDOFSKY will be reading poetry. Come to Pacific Standard in Brooklyn to hear them and mingle with Bodega editors and friends!

Happy hour special on drinks: $1 off everything until 8 pm!

Check out our website: www.bodegamag.com
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bodegamag

Use this short link to share this event with friends: http://bit.ly/bodegalaunch

Emma Straub is the author of the novel Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures and the story collection Other People We Married. Her fiction and non-fiction have been published by Tin House, The Paris Review Daily, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Time, Slate, Cousin Corinne’s Reminder, and many other journals, and she is a staff writer for Rookie. Emma lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she also works as a bookseller.

Adam Soldofsky was born in Oakland, California and raised in the Silicon Valley. He received his MFA from New York University in 2007. Poems of his have recently been featured in Paperbag (www.paperbagazine.com) and Clementine Magazine (https://sites.google.com/a/clementinemagazine.com/issue5/).

Issue #1 will go live on our site Tuesday, September 4th, featuring some incredible fiction and poetry, plus an interview with Emma Straub!

Monday, August 20, 2012

Save the Date: Poetry with Philip Fried and John Brehm Oct. 30 at 7:30 pm.

It's a ways off, but we wanted to give you an early heads-up on a special poetry reading we'll be doing in late October (namely, the 30th at 7:30 pm) with Philip Fried and John Brehm. The rough details on your illustrious readers:

Philip Fried has published five books of poetry, the most recent being Early/Late: New and Selected Poems (Salmon, 2011). Publishers Weekly called that book “skillful and memorable,” and The Literary Review declared, “In realms between and including the Almighty and actuarial tables, Fried speaks every language faithfully and eloquently. Rejoice! Read!”

John Brehm was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, and educated at the University of Nebraska and Cornell University. He is the author of Sea of Faith, which won the 2004 Brittingham Prize, and Help Is on the Way, which won the 2012 Four Lakes Prize, both from the University of Wisconsin Press.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Holodeck Improv Comedy August 21 at 8 pm.

A monthly show where all the comedy is made up on the premises. See some of the city's best indie improv teams perform their stuff. Hosted by the improv group Local Hero with this month's special guests Cindy & Linda, Rain and Food.

Step into the Holodeck where all your fantasies come true. Just be sure to knock if Commander Ryker's in there.

Local Hero are:
Peter Cestaro
Alessandra Migliaccio
Michael Romanos
Bardia Salimi

Rain are:
Andy Bustillos
Betsy Kenney
Hao Lian
Ian Stroud
Brian Urreta

Food are:
Jessie Jolles
Trevor Lyon

Cindy & Linda are:
Jaclyn Backhaus
Emma Barash
Isabelle Barbier
Mason Hu
Lane Kwederis
Eli Mason
Chris Nester
Michael Resnick

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

DadWagon reading August 22 at 7 pm.

DadWagon Presents: Loinfruit, Meltdowns, and Weeknight Drinking

Every month, DadWagon Presents brings three procreative writers to Pacific Standard to tell parenting tales that may make you laugh, will probably make you cringe with self-recognition, and will almost definitely send you to the bar for another pint. The next one is at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, August 22, so leave the kids at home (please!) and come see:

• Benjamin Anastas is the author of the novels An Underachiever’s Diary and The Faithful Narrative of a Pastor’s Disappearance, which was a New York Times notable book. Other work has appeared in The Paris Review, Harper’s, The New York Times Magazine, Bookforum, and is forthcoming in The Best American Essays 2012. His memoir Too Good to Be True will be published in October and will cost his 5-year-old son a small fortune in future therapy.

Brian Braiker, a former Newsweek and Rolling Stone staff writer, is a senior editor of Parenting magazine. He loves one of his daughters more than the other, but he’ll never tell which.

David J. Rosen is the author of the novel I Just Want My Pants Back, as well as the creator and executive producer of the MTV series of the same name. He is also the author of the nonfiction book What’s That Job and How the Hell Do I Get It?, and his writing has appeared in publications like Esquire and The New York Times. Rosen lives in Brooklyn and has the stroller arms to prove it.

Again, the details:

Where: Pacific Standard (82 Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-858-1951; pacificstandardbrooklyn.com)

When: 7 p.m. on Wednesday, August 22

Cost: Free!

Sponsor: “A little better than most blogs” is how Parents Magazine described DadWagon.com, three journalists’ attempt to make sense of the sometimes baffling, often excruciating, occasionally amusing world of fatherhood in New York City. Those three are Nathan Thornburgh, a writer for Time and founder of RoadsandKingdoms.com; Theodore Ross, features editor at Men’s Journal and author of the forthcoming “Am I a Jew?”; and Matt Gross, a travel and food writer and the Times’ former Frugal Traveler columnist.

Contact: E-mail Matt Gross matt@dadwagon.com.

Previous speakers (listen to their talks podcast here and here):

Peter Meehan, author of the Momofuku and Frankies cookbooks, former NYT “$25 & Under” columnist, and founder (with David Chang) of Lucky Peach magazine. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and their daughter, Hazel.

Jeff Yang, “Tao Jones” columnist at the Wall Street Journal, regular contributor to WNYC and PRI’s “The Takeaway,” and author of Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology (volume 2 to be released this fall). He lives four blocks away in Park Slope with his wife, Heather, and their awesome sons, Hudson and Skyler.

Paul Ford, ftrain.com founder, former Harper’s Magazine editor, writer for New York, Slate, The Morning News, as well as the author of the novel Gary Benchley, Rock Star, and an all-around Internet-fame guru. He is lives in Ditmas Park (which he claims is much nicer than Park Slope) with his wife and twin babies.

Donovan Hohn, prize-winning author of Moby-Duck and features editor at GQ, lives in the West Village with his wife and two kids.

Gabe Soria, a music journalist and co-author (with Jessica Abel) of the graphic novel Life Sucks, has a 7-year-old boy who was kind of impressed when his dad introduced him to Dr. John.