Sunday, May 22, 2011

Vertigo

We love high places. We like to climb to the very top of the tower, that little winding staircase after the elevator creaks to a stop. We hike to the precipice, place our toes at the edge, and feel the earth begin to shift beneath our feet, the world around us lift free of its foundations and spin.

On Sunday, May 22nd, come to Fivepoints Arthouse and see if we finally give in to the urge to jump.

Featuring guest readers:
Sherril Jaffe’s latest novel, Expiration Date, was recently released from The Permanent Press.  “Written with warmth, humor, wisdom, and sublime control,” (Kirkus), “this rare conceptual book containing characters that readers will root for,” (Publisher’s Weekly), is “a delightful reminder of the unexpected lives that await us,” (Booklist).   Jaffe is the author of eight other books: Scars Make Your Body More Interesting, This Flower Only Blooms Every Hundred Years, The Unexamined Wife, The Faces Reappear, House Tours, Interior Designs, Ground Rules, and, in collaboration with her late husband, Alan Lew, the PEN Award-winning One God Clapping.  Her stories appear regularly in journals such as Epoch, Alaska Quarterly, and Superstition Review.   She is a 2010 MacDowell Fellow and Professor of Creative Writing at Sonoma State University.

Anna Pulley is the social media sassmaster for Mother Jones. She also writes a social media etiquette column for SF Weekly, a relationship column for teh gays at After Ellen, and writes about things like pegging and orgies for AlterNet. One time, Amanda Palmer asked her out on Twitter. Buy her a drink and she'll probably write you a haiku.

Maisha Z. Johnson studied Creative Writing at San Francisco State University, where she learned to blaspheme through writing with style. Her poetry has appeared in sPARKLE & bLINK, and her fiction in Transfer magazine, where she was awarded the Leo Litwak Award in Fiction. Maisha has read her work at events throughout the Bay Area, including Quiet Lightning, Bitchez Brew and New Poetry Mission. She also blogs regularly about the relationship between writing and social change. On her blog, she once called out Oprah for neglecting women writers, and she's been fearing for her life ever since. If she survives Oprah's wrath, Maisha will begin an MFA Program in Poetry at Pacific University this summer.

Maisha kicked ass with a story about partying nuns in April's live writing throwdown, inspired by the prompt: She listened for breath. She returns this month to read the finished piece.

Musical guest: Quinn Deveaux

Live writing
Vote on a prompt as you enter the show, and four writers will write on the winning topic while you watch them sweat, swear, and get inspired. Each writer will read what he/she wrote, and you get to vote on which piece you'd like to see developed into a finished story/poem/rant to be read at the next PAC performance. The live writing continues to astonish. Place your bets!

Four writers compete, and one will emerge victorious. 
Matthew James DeCoster (Fourteen Hills staff)
Lauren Eggert-Crowe (2010 Best Poet of Santa Cruz)
James Warner (author of All Her Father's Guns)
Lady Monster (Queen of the Fire Tassels)



Plus! Colonist Daniel Heath will return with the thrilling conclusion of his live writing championship piece inspired by the prompt: That's why I wasn't wearing any underwear. Heath won the championship despite the handicap presented by his participation via Skype from the tropics. Maybe some future championship will have to take place at a beach.


Join us Sunday, May 22
Fivepoints Arthouse
72 Tehama
One block south of Howard at 2nd Street
San Francisco
Doors open at 4:30 pm
Show at 5:00 pm