Summer Reading: Collins, Lillis, Guz at Kiva Han

To tide TNY fans over until the next TNY Presents in August, join Kristofer Collins, Karen Lillis, and Savannah Schroll Guz as they read from their recently published books.

Collins, Lillis, and Guz will read on Friday, June 12th at Oakland's Kiva Han Coffee (420 South Craig Street) at 8:00 p.m. Come join us!

TNY Presents is taking a short, two-month summer siesta, while we prepare for the fall. However, we'll be back in August to celebrate Pittsburgh lit culture again!

We have a fantastic line-up of authors for August, and we'll be sliding comfortably into the winter with an equally excellent group of musicians, writers, and poets.

In the meantime, The New Yinzer does have several summer events lined up. One of which is 1970s-themed. A Gore Vidal impersonator will be emcee-ing in a very smart suit and a pair of Vidal-worthy vampire brows. It will be held on Friday, July 24, 2009 at 8:00 p.m. at Brillobox. Come celebrate literature and music with us!

Watch this space for more information on TNY Present's excellent August literary and musical guests!

Join us on Wednesday, May 20th at Modern Formations (4919 Penn Avenue) for the next edition of the fantastic pot luck reading series The New Yinzer Presents! This is the last reading before our summer hiatus. (We'll back back again in August!)

Where: Modern Formations Gallery & Performance Space, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Date: Wednesday, May 20th
Doors: 8:00 p.m.
Cover: $5 (or free with pot luck contribution)
BYOB

(And afterward, please follow Kris Collins and Scott Silsbe--as well as the rest of us Yinzers!--down the street to Brillobox for Sweet Jams!!)

Matt Newton-->: (Non-Fiction) Matthew Newton is a writer/reporter from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His writing appears regularly in national and international magazines, newspapers, and alternative newsweeklies. He has reported on the decline of sampling in hip-hop for Spin; interviewed survivors of Cambodia’s killing fields for Swindle; and investigated how Rust Belt cities are using art as a catalyst for social and economic change for Next American City. In addition, he has appeared as a commentator on Austria’s FM4 radio; is editor of the nonfiction anthology Young & Reckless; and once worked an unseemly job that found him repacking expired fish.

<--- Margaret Bashaar: (Poetry) Margaret Bashaar is the co-editor of Weave Magazine and co-host of The Typewriter Girls. Her poetry has appeared in or is forthcoming from numerous literary journals including Caketrain, The Pedestal Magazine, Boxcar Poetry Review, So to Speak, and Blue Earth Review. She also writesbook reviews for The Multicultural Review and for Weave Magazine's blog.

Mark Possanza-->: (Poetry) Mark Possanza lives and writes in Squirrel Hill. He published his first collection of poems, Atlas of Invention, in 2002, and hopes to publish a second collection, Word Count, in the fall 2009.

<--- Karl Hendricks: (Music) Karl Hendricks lives in Pittsburgh, PA with his wife, Megan, and their two daughters, Maeve and Nell. He is the author ofthe chapbook, Stan Getz Isn’t Coming Back (Speed & Briscoe Books). He teaches writing at the University of Pittsburgh and also works at Paul’s CDs. His band, the Karl Hendricks Trio (sometimes Rock Band), has released eight albums, most recently The World Says.

TNY Presents is 1 year old today!!

Okay, so maybe we all look over 21, but we're young at heart, and celebrating our first birthday as a series!

So, drop those tax packets in the mail and come celebrate with us tonight at Modern Formations Gallery and Performance Space.

Have some birthday cake, listen to some excellent writers read from new work, and hear some great music.

8 p.m., 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Cover: $5 (or free with a pot luck dish!)
BYOB

In Pittsburgh City Paper (March 19, 2009)

The New Yinzer Presents
BY BILL O'DRISCOLL

If you can drop by a reading series almost at random and hear something really good, chances are that series is doing something right.

I'd heard that this monthly series, at Garfield's ModernFormations Gallery, hosted good stuff: It's three writers (mostly poetry and fiction), plus a short musical performance, plus a potluck option that waives the $5 entry fee if you bring something tasty.

But while the biggest name at the March 18 installment was Baltimore-based novelist Michael Kimball, I thought the highlight was a short story by Kelly Ramsey. I didn't catch the title, but it was one of those stories, not realistic but set in a universe slightly to the left of our own, whose matter is communicated not just by its narrative, but by its very premise.

The story described a woman having a phone conversation with her ex while occupying the roof of their building, where she had (somehow) relocated all of their furniture. The tension was in the counterpoint between the plain, almost mundane dialogue and the rising action, which involved various furnishing hurtling -- silently, and apparently of their own accord -- over the roof's edge.

Somewhat in the Donald Barthelme vein, I thought -- a nice combination of surrealism and deadpan humor, with a poetic emotional undercurrent. Ramsey, an MFA student at Pitt, is a former co-editor of Hot Metal Bridge literary mag.

New Yinzer Presents is one of many events, regularly scheduled and otherwise, hosted by this online magazine (www.newyinzer.com) that for seven years has been a valuable part of the local literary scene. March was "Small Press Month," with wares for sale in the back from local literary entrepreneurs.

Contributors and organizers on-hand included Jessica Fenlon, Kristofer Collins and Scott Silsbe. Kimball read from his new novel Dear Everybody (Alma Books), structured as a series of undelivered letters written from childhood on by a depressive weatherman who committed suicide. The music was by Colin Baxter and his combo. (Full disclosure: two CP types were also implicated, including staffer Andy Mulkerin, who read his poetry, and art reviewer Savannah Guz, who MC'd.)

The seating includes couches, and there's art on the walls. It's a fair bet for the fourth Wednesday night of the month.

The Next TNY Presents will be April 15th, Tax Day
The April 15th reading also marks the series' 1st anniversary!

Come hear some excellent local writers read, listen to some good music, and have some cake to celebrate with us...

Where? Modern Formations Gallery, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Cover: $5 (or FREE with pot luck contribution)
Doors Open: 8:00 p.m.


<-- Bill Hughes: (Poetry) Bill Hughes was born in Akron, OH in 1987. He willgraduate from the University of Pittsburgh this summer. He has one book of poems out with Six Gallery Press, called Vagrancy, and he is in theprocess of publishing a second book of poems called Down The Western Dark. He is currently writing a short novel.



Molly Prosser -->: (Poetry) Molly Prosser holds an MFA in Poetry from CarlowUniversity where she teaches literature, marketing, and writing. She works for ModCloth.com as a Fashion Writer, and is currently developing her restaurant review blog, The RadDish. She's on the board of the International Poetry Form and the Small Press Festival, and her work as appeared in the Pittsburgh City Paper, La Fusta, and Weave Magazine. She is currently working on her chapbook entitled 'The Slip.' Molly is a lover of travel, new spaces, urban farming, and Bollywood. She lives in Regent Square with her husband and mini wiener dog, Keith Richards.

<-- Adam Matcho: (Non-Fiction) Adam Matcho writes true stories for The NewYinzer. Names have not been changed and distinguishing characteristics have not been altered. They are all just as guilty as Adam.




Thirteenth Rune-->: (Music) Kevin Finn began a folk renaissance with his droning first solo ep Bonesong+4 in 2000. Since then, the indie underground continually fed upon his work. Vessels was released as an offshoot, and iconic in its approach to self production. Now recording/performing songs for Thirteenth Rune, Finn continues to deconstruct his art.

Join us Wednesday, March 18th for the next installment of everybody’s favorite potluck and performance series, TNY Presents!

On display this month will be the tasty literary talents of Michael Kimball, Kelly Ramsey, and Andy Mulkerin. Stick around for a few musical delicacies from Colin Baxter.

Also, March is designated Small Press Month. LDP Distro will be on handwith a selection of zines and micro press books for sale. http://www.smallpressmonth.org/

Cover: $5 or FREE with contribution to our Potluck Dinner
BYOB

Michael Kimball: (Reader) Michael Kimball’s third novel, Dear Everybody,was recently published in the US, UK, and Canada. His first two novels are The Way the Family Got Away (2000) and How Much of Us There Was (2005),both of which have been translated (or are being translated) into many languages. He is also responsible for the art project—Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard)--and the documentary film, I Will Smash You. Michael lives in Baltimore. Find more of his world here: www.michael-kimball.com ------>

<--- Kelly Ramsey: (Reader) Kelly Ramsey is a poet and fiction writer whose work has appeared in The New Yinzer and Whiskey & Fox. She will complete her MFA at the University of Pittsburgh in April of this year and soon thereafter depart for warmer climes.

Andy Mulkerin: (Reader) Andy Mulkerin is a writer and collector of small things of no monetary value. He lives in Pittsburgh, where he lays downprose for an alternative weekly newspaper. His interests include newspaper comics and similar arcana/ephemera. --->

<--- Colin Baxter: (Music) Colin Baxter has been writing songs made mostly by stitching schizotypal fragments of notes and lyric together. Amidst habitual experiences of panic, fear, ruination and guilt, bouyancy has developed by the externalization of feeling. Reveling in multiple viewpoints, decentralization of self relieves distress and creates a net against oblivion. Aiming to change his need to change, illustrating vistas in which time becomes space and space becomes presence, looking and listening--all things are telling their story. Together with friends Mika, Nathan and Anna they bring to The New Yinzer a collection of songs. Violins, accordian, vocals, acoustic guitar and bass will be present.