This month’s theme is BACK TO SCHOOL (SECOND
ADOLESCENCE), starring:
Melissa Febos (Whip Smart)
Theadora Fisher
Loren Krywanczyk
Tanya Paperny (LitDrift)
Rachel Simon (Theory of Orange)
RSVP on Facebook!
ABOUT THE READERS:
Melissa Febos is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, WHIP SMART (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press), which Kirkus Reviews said, “Expertly captures grace within depravity.” She has been featured on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross and the cover of the NY Post, among many other national publications. Her writing has been published in venues such as Hunger Mountain, The Southeast Review, Redivider, The Rambler, Storyscape Journal, The Huffington Post, The New York Times online, Bitch Magazine, and on The Nervous Breakdown, where she regularly blogs. She co-curates and hosts the Mixer Reading and Music Series at Cake Shop, teaches at SUNY Purchase College, The Gotham Writers’ Workshop, and NYU, and holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. This summer, she will be a McDowell Colony fellow. She lives in Brooklyn. More information about her work and projects can be found at melissafebos.com.
Theadora Fisher has been writing in a journal off and on since her mother made her start one in 1986. The first entry read ‘i don’t know what to write. Will you not be mad at me please??” Since then, in spite of that inauspicious beginning, blank pieces of paper have been receiving her angst regularly. When she is not writing (which is sadly most of the time), she is an activist for transgender equality and a femme-about-town in Boston, Massachusetts, where she lives with her high-school sweetheart and the requisite two cats. @dora_theadora
Loren Krywanczyk taught 6th grade English at a public middle school in Brooklyn for four years. He has published writings on LGBT issues in public schools in “Rethinking Schools,” “Radical Teacher,” and the Queer Studies Journal of Finland among other publications.
Tanya Paperny is a graduate student in Writing at Columbia University, a web editor for the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, and on the staff of Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art. Prior to moving to New York City, she lived in Washington, DC and worked as an activist with Campus Progress and as a reporter for WAMU-FM. Now she teaches creative writing to high school students, is a regular contributor to LitDrift, a literary blog, and has written for HEEB Magazine, among other places. She’s into Russian stuff, gay stuff, and cute baby animals.
Rachel M. Simon is the author of the full-length poetry collection, Theory of Orange (Pavement Saw Press), and a chapbook, Marginal Road (Hollyridge Press). She teaches writing, gender studies, and film courses at SUNY Purchase College, Fordham University, Marymount Manhattan College at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. Simon lives in Yonkers with her partner and dog.