As the year winds down into its darkest days, I hope you'll join me for one of these events. If you come to two, I will give you a lollipop.

• Friday, December 2, at 8 pm: The Furnace Says Goodnight at Hollow Earth Radio. Thirteen Furnace writers contributed pieces that Corinne and I have woven into a single story. The pieces are at turns raw, luminous, defiant, and hopeful. I'm super excited to see the collaboration come alive on stage.  And there will be klezmer music! Please come help us celebrate our last performance. If you're not in town, you can tune in online at hollowearthradio.org.
• Wednesday, December 7, at 7 pm: Superfriends: Moss + Pacifica at Open Books. Two literary magazines near and dear to me are having launch parties for their latest issues. I'm in Moss #6! Pacifica published my first poem back in March.
• Tuesday, December 13, at 7 pm: Seattle Fiction Federation at Richard Hugo House.  A fiction-full night! I'm reading alongside Steve Sibra, Lucy Hitz, and Donna Miscolta, whose story collection Hola and Goodbye just came out from Carolina Wren Press. There's also an open mic, so come with up to 5 minutes of fiction to share.

I normally think of August as a sleepy month for zoning out and wandering into enormous spider webs, but this year, in Seattle, there are quite a few things happening, all of which are free. Here's where I'll be if you'd like to join:*Thursday, August 7, 6 pm: ekFRANTICS, a reading of literature about imaginary art, with David Lasky and Arlo Smith at the Greg Kucera Gallery. This is being put on by the local press Babel/Salvage and coincides with the Pioneer Square Art Walk, one of my favorite art events in town. I'm reading selections from my novel-in-progress, Paralegal, about a 25-year-old visual artist who takes a job as a paralegal just before the economic crisis of 2008.*Thursday, August 14, 7 pm: My Body is a Book of Rules launch at Richard Hugo House. My dear friend Elissa Washuta launches her debut memoir, which I happily pre-ordered yesterday. I can't wait to get my hands on it and celebrate with her.*Thursday, August 21, 7 pm: The Furnace Presents Chelsea Werner Jatzke at Hollow Earth Radio. Corinne Manning and I are launching the third (!) season of our quarterly reading series featuring one writer, reading one entire story, "with vigor." Chelsea's story is inspired by the Velvet Underground. Come see it live; it's gonna be rad.*Monday, August 25, 7 pm: Seattle Fiction Federation #1 at Richard Hugo House: Corinne is reading at this new series featuring fiction only. I'm excited for this new venue.*Tuesday, August 26, 8 pm: Old Growth Northwest Reading & Opening Mic at the Jewel Box Theater: I'm a featured reader alongside Matthew Simmons and Melody Moberg. We're all reading new work in response to the prompt "My first day on the job was much like my last," plus something else of our choosing. Fun!Then after a week in California for my best & oldest friend's wedding, I've got one more very fun reading called Seattle Wage Slaves: Tales from the Grind, which features stories about work. I'm reading alongside Steve Barker, Sonora Jha, Michael Spence, and Wilson Diehl. That's on Thursday, September 11 at 6:30 at Office Nomads. There will be spiked coffee and free donuts!

Kathlene Postma's reading is next week, and I'm so looking forward to it. An excerpt from her story "Fetch" is up on The Furnace blog to give you a taste.

Kicking off The Furnace Reading Series last week was wonderful. The space was cozy and the crowd friendly, and I'm looking forward to coming back in October to help out with Buffy Aakaash's radio play, "The Last Night at Manuela's". In the meantime, check out audio and video from my reading on Seattle poet Greg Bem's website , a very lovely review of the event over at City Arts, and Morgan's Martini Hour, the gracious on-air host of The Furnace.In other collaborative-art-project news, I'm participating in Art & Words, a show curated by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam down in Fort Worth, Texas on October 6. Eleven writers and eleven visual artists are exchanging work and creating forty-four collaborative pieces. I'm excited about the new piece I wrote for it, and I can't wait to see what gets created based on my short-short "A Meal". Bonnie's got a Kickstarter going to help make the event extra special. Prizes include discounted art, a commissioned jazz composition, or haikus, dactyls, limericks, or pieces of flash fiction written just for you!