Overworked and underpaid? Catch our season-opening Five Things on Thursday, September 30th, featuring reading and music on the theme JOBS. We’re proud to have some great artists signed on already, including the incomparable Boone Graham:

Boone writes songs and teaches music, art and animation here in Austin. He performs with Boonesboro and Shhhlow at venues around town and holds down a monthly spot at Wake the Dead in San Marcos. New Eyes, his latest album, was released earlier this year on Pecan Crazy Records.

Five Things
Thursday, September 30
7:30 PM * FREE
United States Art Authority
2906 Fruth Street, Austin

The Harry Ransom Center commemorates the opening of the David Foster Wallace archive with readings of Wallace’s work by writers and actors on Tuesday, September 14, at 7 p.m. in Jessen Auditorium in Homer Rainey Hall.

Readers, including Elizabeth Crane, Doug Dorst, Owen Egerton, Chris Gibson, and Jake Silverstein, share selections of Wallace’s fiction, essays, and correspondence. Wallace’s archive is housed at the Ransom Center.

VIEW A LIVE WEBCAST of this event starting at approximately 7 p.m. on Tuesday, September 14.

Seating is free, but limited. Line forms upon arrival of the first person, with doors opening 30 minutes in advance.

A reception and small display of materials from the Wallace archive follow at the Ransom Center.

Co-sponsored by American Short Fiction and Salvage Vanguard Theater.

Each month a topic is picked from a real live encyclopedia and a clutch of volunteering writers are given assignments on that entry. There are Def Poetry Jam vets, writing professors, slam poets, stand-up comics, fiction writers. You’ll learn true things and some things that are less true!

This month’s topic: MYTHICAL BEASTS!

Featuring Contributors:

Diane Fleming (poet, author): Chupacabra
Kyle John Schmidt (playwright): Cthulhu
Rudy Ramirez (artist, activist): Kraken
Jennifer Hartmann (actor, musician): Siren
Jon Cook (actor, musician): Jackalope
Kile Akerman (poet): Manticore

Featuring:
Katelyn Wood as Wiki Lake
Mike Slefinger as Lord Professor Michael Patrick Slefinger
Kyle Schultz as Mike’s Stepdad Ron
Betsy McCann as Gypsy Magnolia
Katie Pengra as Becky, the Intern
Gy Odom as The Fact Checker

with sets from The Minor Mishap Marching Band and the Inheritance immediately to follow!

And your hosts, Mike and Ralphie!

Pre-show and drinks start at 7:30pm.
Show starts promptly at 8:13.
After-party at 10:00.
$8 at 7:30
$5 at 10:00

Check out the Chronicle article about readings around town in Austin, courtesy Wayne Alan Brenner. Between Teleportal Readings, The Story Department, The Awesome! and Great! Reading Show!, Utter Reading Series and Whiskey Rebellion, The Encyclopedia Show, and us here at Five Things, you’ll never have a reason to read quietly to yourself!

DETAILS: HERE

This should be a really fun event, made possible by the fine folks at Book People, the legendary Austin bookstore. I’m reading alongside author and musician Jesse Sublett (who was a founding member of the infamous Austin punk outfit The Skunks, and more recently the author of several books – his most recent being the utterly brilliant “Never The Same Again: A Rock’n’Roll Gothic” which I wholeheartedly recommend checking out).  Noir at the Bar will also feature the hardboiled stylings of Harry Hunsicker (“Crosshairs” / “The Next Time You Die”).  It’s going to be a potent cocktail of music and readings, with a healthy dose of booze and who-knows-what thrown into the mix.

Austin, TX 78704

Kevin Sampsell

The Utter reading series returns to feature sticky flash fiction imported from the Pacific Northwest along with some local favorites. Portland visitors Kevin Sampsell (A Common Pornography) and Frayn Masters join locals Alex Lemon (Happy: A Memoir), Elizabeth Crane (When the Messenger is Hot), and Jeff Chan in a summer reading accompanied by great wines, cheeses, and desserts at House Wine. Hosted by Tyson Midkiff.

Kevin Sampsell is the author of the memoir A Common Pornography, and the publisher of the micropress Future Tense Books. His fiction and essays have appeared in Nerve, Smith Magazine, Quick Fiction, McSweeney’s, and elsewhere. He lives in Portland, Oregon, where he works at the legendary Powell’s City of Books.

Frayn Masters

B. Frayn Masters has been published in Pindeldyboz, Spork, Monkeybicycle, and elsewhere. She has also written articles under a different name for “adult magazines.” She is the co-host of Back Fence PDX, a popular storytelling series in Portland, Oregon.

Elizabeth Crane is the author of three collections of short stories, When the Messenger is Hot, All this Heavenly Glory, and You Must Be This Happy to Enter. Her work has also been featured in numerous publications, anthologies and on NPR’s Selected Shorts. She is a recipient of the Chicago Public Library 21st Century Award, and her work has been adapted for the stage by Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater company, and has also been adapted for film. She currently teaches at UCR Palm Desert’s Low Residency MFA program.

Alex Lemon is the author of Happy: A Memoir (Scribner), the poetry collections Mosquito (Tin House Books), Hallelujah Blackout (Milkweed Editions), Fancy Beasts (forthcoming, Milkweed Editions), and the chapbook At Last Unfolding Congo (horse less press). His writing has appeared in Esquire, Best American Poetry 2008, AGNI, BOMB, Gulf Coast, jubilat, Kenyon Review, New England Review, Open City, Pleiades and Tin House, among others. He was awarded a 2005 Literature Fellowship in Poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts and a 2006 Minnesota Arts Board Grant. He co-edits LUNA: A Journal of Poetry and Translation with Ray Gonzalez and frequently writes book reviews. He lives in Fort Worth, Texas and teaches at Texas Christian University.

Jeff Chan has taught writing at Kansas State University, where he received a Hickock Fellowship in Creative Writing; Texas State University San Marcos, where he completed his MFA in Fiction Writing; and Loyola University New Orleans, where he was a fiction editor for The New Orleans Review. Currently he teaches and tutors at Austin Community College and Huston-Tillotson University. He is a regular contributor to Literary Magazine Review and The New Orleans Review, where he is now a Contributing Editor; his latest nonfiction has appeared in these two journals. Jeff recently read his essay “Skeleton Dance Zombopolis: Hurricane Katrina and the Zombie Metaphor” at the annual conference of the American Studies Association of Texas. He’s at work on two or three lyrical essays, a couple new short stories, and maybe a ballad.

This month’s encylopedic topic is:

THE FUTURE!

Joining us this month will be:

Slam Daddy Mike Henry – Teleportation

Diva Extraordinaire Angelica Davis – Star Trek

Scholar of the Americas Susan Quesal – Banana Plant Extinction

Cynical Companyman Colin Gray - Dec. 21, 2012

Improvisation Funnylady Erica Lies – 8th Wave Feminism

Visiting Playwright Caitlin Parrish – “Kids These Days” (2089)

And don’t forget the good ol’ cast of regulars: Mike and Ralph, Wiki Lake, Hatcher the Intern, Lord Professor Slefinger, Gypsy Magnolia and Stepdad Ron !

So come on down to the ND@501 Studios on June 17th!

Pre-show and drinks start at 7:30 pm!

Show starts promoptly at 8:13 pm!

$6/person at the door

Remember: Never let them see you dumb!

www.encyclopediashowaustin.com

Don’t miss the next installment in the exciting reading series:

The Encyclopedia Show, Austin!

Thursday, May 20, 2010 7:30pm – 10:00pm ND @ 501 Studios501 I-35 Austin, TX

Each month a topic is picked from a real live encyclopedia and a clutch of volunteering writers are given assignments on that entry. There are Def Poetry Jam vets, writing professors, slam poets, stand-up comics, fiction writers, and LOTS of feelings!

This month’s topic: Explosives!

Featuring Contributors:
Amelia Gray (Author of AM/PM, Host of 5 Things in Austin): The Large Hadron Collider
Faylita Hicks (Spoken Word Artist, Host of Austin’s Neo Soul): Shrapnel
Krissi Reeves (Frontera Fest “Best of Fest” Selection, Slam Poet): MacGyver
Kyle Schultz (Encyclofriend, Forensics National Champion): Bath School Disaster
Jackie Swanson (Actress, Dance Captain): ACME Corporation
Dan Kerrigan (Standup/Sketch Comedian): Krakatoa

Featuring:
Katelyn Wood as Wiki Lake
Mike Slefinger as Lord Professor Michael Patrick Slefinger
Chris Hatcher as The Intern
Betsy McCann as Gypsy Magnolia
Gy Odom as The Fact Checker

And your hosts, the Mikes and Ralph!

You HAVE to come! Only $6! Nothing in this world is $6. Except this.

Pre-show and drinks start at 7:30pm. Show starts promptly at 8:13.

We’re on summer break now, but we’ll be back in the Fall with new readers, new music, and more. In the meantime, keep checking this site for pictures from the show and updates on reading events happening all summer long. See you soon!