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Another Philly Fiction 2 event: I'll be returning to the Writers House (yay!) on January 25th for a reading with some other PF2 contributors. The event begins at 7 pm, and is a part of the Writers House Live series. Thus, it will be recorded for WXPN. Thus, the 7 pm is a fairly set start time, and the doors are closed for sound quality. In other words: if you want to come, get there on time, or you may be left out. And we wouldn't that.

You can read more about the program here. Hope to see you that evening.

I've been meaning to post this: Remember Tapeworm? The entire project is now available on the web, thanks to curator Kaegan Sparks. Check it out here.

Hey folks, I just had a great idea. Why don't you go and buy Barn Burned, Then, a new book of poetry from my good pal Michelle Taransky.

You may remember her video that I previously posted, or the great poem she wrote in honor of my departure from the Kelly Writers House.

She's an insanely devout fan of Charles Barkley, so you know she's good people. Now go buy the book.

Below is the poem "Damn," written by Writers House Poet Laureate Michelle Taransky on the occasion of my firing from the Writers House. It is a lipogram that doesn't use the letters in "Kelly Writers House" -- Michelle's attempt to restrain herself like I will be restrained in my post-Writers House life.

Damn
fax a nag and fax a mad fax,
a man and a bad pang
ma bang pa, and pa bang ma
and an ax, and ax an adze
nab a man, jab a fan, pad a cab
and gab a fang bag, ban a bad band, ban a damp damp pang

It's even better when she's reading it. I'll link that audio when it's available. I've already challenged her to have this published, so I can ride the coattails of her success.

Steve Earle visited the Writers House this Wednesday for this year's Blutt Singer-Songwriter Symposium. During a fantastic 90-minute program, Earle talked about his lifetime of work, sprinkling in some songs throughout the evening, plus reading an excerpt from the novel he is currently writing.

I had a wonderful time -- probably one of the best Writers House programs in recent memory. As usual, I took photos, which you can view here.

Robert Coover visited the Writers House this past week as the year's first Kelly Writers House Fellow. As usual, I took photos, which you can view on Flickr. Video and audio of the event (a Monday night reading and a Tuesday morning moderated discussion) are available here.

The Writers House hosted its seventh annual Mind of Winter program on January 29th. The program featured -- as always -- Al Filreis teaching Wallace Stevens' poem "The Snow Man." Al was followed by winter-related readings from Sam Sharf, Kathy De Marco, Lance Wahlert, Blair Borish, Greg Djanikian, Allison Harris and Zach Ferris.

Perhaps the biggest star, though, was the soup, as you can see above and in the accompanying photoset. This year, the North African Couscous was my favorite. Kudos to Erin and all of her soup-making pals.

After mentioning Alicia's story earlier this week, I realized I had not yet blogged about the equally excellent Kelly Writers House podcast featuring Jamie-Lee Josselyn.

Jamie-Lee talks about the memoir she is writing about her mother with Al Filreis and Jessica Lowenthal.  You can listen to it here.

My pal Alicia Oltuski currently has a recording up at Berlin Stories.  I quite like it, and hope you'll check it out.  Alicia has a book forthcoming from Scribner -- The Movement of Precious Objects.  I'll probably remind you of that in the future as well.

Courtesy of The Continental Review, here's a video by John L. Roberts, featuring a poem by friend of BANANA GRABBERS DOT COM Michelle Taransky.