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.
The Encyclopedia Show Austin is a live variety extravaganza that commissions local and touring artists to share their unique talents in order to create a new performed encyclopedia entry each month. Helping us out, we’ve got actors, videographers, Def Poetry Jam vets, writing professors, stand-up comedians, fiction writers and lots of FEELINGS!
