(le) poisson rouge

Once upon a time you were in third grade and you had to give book reports and it was awesome. The Book Report promises to deliver exactly what it promises: reports on books by the people who’ve read them. Join Leigh Stein and Sasha Fletcher and assorted literate guests for an evening that will remind you of 3rd grade in the best possible way.

Justine Hope Blau, a writer of screenplays and books, earned an MFA in screenwriting from Columbia University’s School of the Arts. She has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Paramount Pictures, and the Wallace Foundation/ Millay Colony for the Arts. A resident of New York City, where she was born and raised, she has also has lived in England, France and Los Angeles. She is the mother of a son and daughter.

Monica McClure’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Los Angeles Review, The Lit Review, Lambda Literary Review Online, Loaded Bicycle, Indigest, and elsewhere. She teaches in the English Department at Bloomfield College and lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Eric Nelson came of age in both the concrete jungles and Pine Barrens of New Jersey. Nelson’s non-fiction has appeared in The Billfold, Electric Literature and Bushwick Daily. His fiction has appeared in Squawk Back, Volume 1 Brooklyn and Having a Whiskey Coke With You and his book of short stories, The Silk City Series, was published by Knickerbocker Circus in 2010. He co-curates the Fireside Follies reading series in Brooklyn.

Andrew Durbin co-edits Wonder, a publisher of art books, ephemera, pamphlets, and glossies. He is the author of Reveler (Argos Books, forthcoming 2012). His writings have appeared in the Brooklyn Rail, Conjunctions, Washington Square, West Wind Review, and elsewhere. He is an associate editor of Conjunctions and lives in New York City.

Leigh Stein is the author of four chapbooks of poetry and one novel, The Fallback Plan, newly released from Melville House. You can listen to an excerpt of The Fallback Plan here.

Sasha Fletcher is the author of the novella WHEN ALL OUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED MARCHING BANDS WILL FILL THE STREETS AND WE WILL NOT HEAR THEM BECAUSE WE WILL BE UPSTAIRS IN THE CLOUDS [ml press 2010] and a couple of poetry chapbooks.