1,000 WORDS READING MOVES TO THE WAYPOST FOR ITS NEXT INSTALLMENT: EXCESS
7 p.m. sharp-9 p.m., THURSDAY, August 5 at THE WAYPOST, 3120 N. Williams Avenue – Portland, (503) 367- 3182
FREE, ALL-AGES VENUE
CONTACT: MEL FAVARA, 971-506-3340, mel.favara@gmail.com
1,000 Words returns Thursday, August 5 for our inaugural reading at the Waypost. We’ll present the newest chapter in a Oulipean experiment: five exemplary local writers wrote on the theme EXCESS, penning 250 words per week in response to prompts created/found/stolen by series curator Mel Favara. The results, as per usual, have been wildly divergent, smart, and fresh: want to see how five different authors employed the phrase, “It looked like an exit wound” and the words “frame, nail, prognosticate, key, and typeface” in one 250 word piece? Join us Thursday at the Waypost to hear the writer’s innovative work and also witness the 1,000 Words house band, Reid Trevarthen and Ethan Camp, members of Vancouver emo-punk trio We Play Quiet, playing songs based on the prompts at the intermission.
Nora Robertson writes fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, which have appeared in such publications as Plazm, Redactions, Alimentum, Monkeybicycle, and Portland Monthly, and was nominated for the 2007 Pushcart Prize. She is the producer of the New Oregon Interview Series, which explores Portland’s evolving creative culture. She is currently at work with video artist Jason Bahling on a short poetic film The Body Show to be released in November.
Joe Pitkin teaches English at Clark College (or, depending on his mood, Cluck Collage or Cork Cleavage). His work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in North American Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, and Los Angeles Review. The novel he is working on currently has the tentative title The Four Quakers of the Apocalypse, but that will probably change.
Cosimo Giovine teaches writing classes at Clark College in Vancouver, WA. His story, “Dream Book” was a Finalist in the 2008 Glimmer Train Very Short Fiction contest, and the graphic novel he edited, Vatican City, Las Vegas, received the bronze award at the 2007 Independent Publisher Magazine Awards. He’s a Leo and enjoys words that begin with the letters “r” and “s”.
Becky Kluth is a sometimes story writer, music maker and portrait painter living in Southeast Portland. Her hobbies include acquiring cheap instruments, organizing her possessions, and trying to become a real person. She spends most of her time talking to dogs.
Nick Carter is a former professional paintball player and Texas high school football defensive tackle who moved to Portland hoping to realize his creative dreams. He is currently unemployed.
Reid Trevarthen and Ethan Camp are both polymaths: they’ll be playing songs based on the writers’ prompts.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
We Live!
And we are moving to first Thursdays, for now, and to the Waypost. And we have GREAT readers! See below!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 1,000 WORDS READING MOVES TO THE WAYPOST FOR ITS NEXT INSTALLMENT: EXCESS
7 p.m. sharp-9 p.m., THURSDAY, August 5 at THE WAYPOST, 3120 N. Williams Avenue – Portland, (503) 367- 3182
FREE, ALL-AGES VENUE
CONTACT: MEL FAVARA, 971-506-3340, mel.favara@gmail.com
1,000 Words returns Thursday, August 5 for our inaugural reading at the Waypost. We’ll present the newest chapter in a Oulipean experiment: five exemplary local writers wrote on the theme EXCESS, penning 250 words per week in response to prompts created/found/stolen by series curator Mel Favara. The results, as per usual, have been wildly divergent, smart, and fresh: want to see how five different authors employed the phrase, “It looked like an exit wound” and the words “frame, nail, prognosticate, key, and typeface” in one 250 word piece? Join us Thursday at the Waypost to hear the writer’s innovative writing and also witness the 1,000 Words house band, Reid Trevarthen and Ethan Camp, members of Vancouver emo-punk trio We Play Quiet playing songs based on the prompts at the intermission.
Nora Robertson writes fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, which have appeared in such publications as Plazm, Redactions, Alimentum, Monkeybicycle, and Portland Monthly, and was nominated for the 2007 Pushcart Prize. She is the producer of the New Oregon Interview Series, which explores Portland’s evolving creative culture. She is currently at work with video artist Jason Bahling on a short poetic film The Body Show to be released in November.
Joe Pitkin teaches English at Clark College (or, depending on his mood, Cluck Collage or Cork Cleavage). His work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in North American Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, and Los Angeles Review. The novel he is working on currently has the tentative title The Four Quakers of the Apocalypse, but that will probably change.
Cosimo Giovine teaches writing classes at Clark College in Vancouver, WA. His story, “Dream Book” was a Finalist in the 2008 Glimmer Train Very Short Fiction contest, and the graphic novel he edited, Vatican City, Las Vegas, received the bronze award at the 2007 Independent Publisher Magazine Awards. He’s a Leo and enjoys words that begin with the letters “r” and “s”.
Becky Kluth is a sometimes story writer, music maker and portrait painter living in Southeast Portland. Her hobbies include acquiring cheap instruments, organizing her possessions, and trying to become a real person. She spends most of her time talking to dogs.
Nick Carter is a former professional paintball player and Texas high school football defensive tackle who moved to Portland hoping to realize his creative dreams. He is currently unemployed.
Reid Trevarthen and Ethan Camp are both polymaths: they’ll be playing songs based on the writers’ prompts.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 1,000 WORDS READING MOVES TO THE WAYPOST FOR ITS NEXT INSTALLMENT: EXCESS
7 p.m. sharp-9 p.m., THURSDAY, August 5 at THE WAYPOST, 3120 N. Williams Avenue – Portland, (503) 367- 3182
FREE, ALL-AGES VENUE
CONTACT: MEL FAVARA, 971-506-3340, mel.favara@gmail.com
1,000 Words returns Thursday, August 5 for our inaugural reading at the Waypost. We’ll present the newest chapter in a Oulipean experiment: five exemplary local writers wrote on the theme EXCESS, penning 250 words per week in response to prompts created/found/stolen by series curator Mel Favara. The results, as per usual, have been wildly divergent, smart, and fresh: want to see how five different authors employed the phrase, “It looked like an exit wound” and the words “frame, nail, prognosticate, key, and typeface” in one 250 word piece? Join us Thursday at the Waypost to hear the writer’s innovative writing and also witness the 1,000 Words house band, Reid Trevarthen and Ethan Camp, members of Vancouver emo-punk trio We Play Quiet playing songs based on the prompts at the intermission.
Nora Robertson writes fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, which have appeared in such publications as Plazm, Redactions, Alimentum, Monkeybicycle, and Portland Monthly, and was nominated for the 2007 Pushcart Prize. She is the producer of the New Oregon Interview Series, which explores Portland’s evolving creative culture. She is currently at work with video artist Jason Bahling on a short poetic film The Body Show to be released in November.
Joe Pitkin teaches English at Clark College (or, depending on his mood, Cluck Collage or Cork Cleavage). His work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in North American Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, and Los Angeles Review. The novel he is working on currently has the tentative title The Four Quakers of the Apocalypse, but that will probably change.
Cosimo Giovine teaches writing classes at Clark College in Vancouver, WA. His story, “Dream Book” was a Finalist in the 2008 Glimmer Train Very Short Fiction contest, and the graphic novel he edited, Vatican City, Las Vegas, received the bronze award at the 2007 Independent Publisher Magazine Awards. He’s a Leo and enjoys words that begin with the letters “r” and “s”.
Becky Kluth is a sometimes story writer, music maker and portrait painter living in Southeast Portland. Her hobbies include acquiring cheap instruments, organizing her possessions, and trying to become a real person. She spends most of her time talking to dogs.
Nick Carter is a former professional paintball player and Texas high school football defensive tackle who moved to Portland hoping to realize his creative dreams. He is currently unemployed.
Reid Trevarthen and Ethan Camp are both polymaths: they’ll be playing songs based on the writers’ prompts.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
1,000 Words "Quitting" Monday, May 3
1,000 Words convenes once again for another Monday night of literary revelry. As per usual, four writers agreed to write 250 words per week for the month leading up to the reading, this time on the theme "Quitting". The writers also agreed, wisely or not, to include a handful of challenging prompts in each week's effort. The results are, well, pretty fascinating. Join us Monday, May 3 at 7 pm at the Maiden (the corner of SE Morrison and 7th) for a free all ages show that may leave your socks intact, but will blow your mind. Here's a sample prompt and a who's who of the excellent readers. Reid Trevarthen and Ethan Camp will favor us with a short set of songs based on the prompts during intermission.
Prompt 1
Phrase:
the thing that changed everything, but failed
Words:
brink
bank
wheel
tar
and plume.
Readers:
B. Frayn Masters is co-host and co-producer of Back Fence PDX Productions. Samplers of her writing can be found in MonkeyBicycle 6, Hobart, Spork, and Mountain Man Dance Moves: The McSweeney’s Book of Lists. Masters is one half of the funny and brainy sketch comedy duo Eastland Academy, and is a member of rapid-fire performance group Haiku Inferno. She is a freelance scriptwriter, copywriter, and director.
Lisa Hoashi is a writer and humanitarian who lives and works in Portland, Oregon. Her writing has appeared in Willamette Week and The Missouri Review, among other publications. Short stories are her current focus, as well as the various types of writing she does in her position at Mercy Corps, which is sending her to Haiti this year to tell the stories of earthquake survivors.
Spencer Newlin-Cushing is an Editor and Marketing partner for the readinglocal.com website as well as a Marketing Coordinator for Wordstock Book Festival. He loves to nest parenthesis. His stories can’t be found anywhere yet, but he hopes to change that soon.
Jeff Schmitt wrote a book and then sat on it, which was probably for
the best. He lives in a knowable world, makes the bed sometimes and
doesn’t speak a word of French.
Prompt 1
Phrase:
the thing that changed everything, but failed
Words:
brink
bank
wheel
tar
and plume.
Readers:
B. Frayn Masters is co-host and co-producer of Back Fence PDX Productions. Samplers of her writing can be found in MonkeyBicycle 6, Hobart, Spork, and Mountain Man Dance Moves: The McSweeney’s Book of Lists. Masters is one half of the funny and brainy sketch comedy duo Eastland Academy, and is a member of rapid-fire performance group Haiku Inferno. She is a freelance scriptwriter, copywriter, and director.
Lisa Hoashi is a writer and humanitarian who lives and works in Portland, Oregon. Her writing has appeared in Willamette Week and The Missouri Review, among other publications. Short stories are her current focus, as well as the various types of writing she does in her position at Mercy Corps, which is sending her to Haiti this year to tell the stories of earthquake survivors.
Spencer Newlin-Cushing is an Editor and Marketing partner for the readinglocal.com website as well as a Marketing Coordinator for Wordstock Book Festival. He loves to nest parenthesis. His stories can’t be found anywhere yet, but he hopes to change that soon.
Jeff Schmitt wrote a book and then sat on it, which was probably for
the best. He lives in a knowable world, makes the bed sometimes and
doesn’t speak a word of French.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Away Too Long
As Laura Moulton's narrator might say in her upcoming novel, "Oh my heck!"
Despite the lag here, 1000 Words has been rocking forward into the new decade with readings themed "Lies" and "Resolve" and others. And we have another reading coming up the first Monday in May, themed "Quitting," and starring the great Frayn Masters. Stay tuned for details.
In the interim, I've been teaching like crazy, and I just MC-ed the terrific Read to Rebuild Haiti benefit hosted by Portland Reading Local and the Writer's Dojo at their beautiful space in St. Johns. We raised over $1,000 for Mercy Corps, and Tom Spanbauer, Ariel Gore, Kevin Sampsell, Margaret Malone, Ben Parzybok, and Laura Moulton all read incredible work, which the friendly crowd appreciated.
In other news, after an absence, our house band, We Play Quiet, has returned--frontman Ethan Camp decided that Hampshire College was "the place rich people with no vision dump their weird kids," and came back west to study English at Western Washington University. Atta boy, Ethan.
We're still shopping for one more reader for May--hit me up if you know a genius.
Love,
Mel
Despite the lag here, 1000 Words has been rocking forward into the new decade with readings themed "Lies" and "Resolve" and others. And we have another reading coming up the first Monday in May, themed "Quitting," and starring the great Frayn Masters. Stay tuned for details.
In the interim, I've been teaching like crazy, and I just MC-ed the terrific Read to Rebuild Haiti benefit hosted by Portland Reading Local and the Writer's Dojo at their beautiful space in St. Johns. We raised over $1,000 for Mercy Corps, and Tom Spanbauer, Ariel Gore, Kevin Sampsell, Margaret Malone, Ben Parzybok, and Laura Moulton all read incredible work, which the friendly crowd appreciated.
In other news, after an absence, our house band, We Play Quiet, has returned--frontman Ethan Camp decided that Hampshire College was "the place rich people with no vision dump their weird kids," and came back west to study English at Western Washington University. Atta boy, Ethan.
We're still shopping for one more reader for May--hit me up if you know a genius.
Love,
Mel
Monday, November 2, 2009
Back, not so much in Black
Tonight's 2nd anniversary reading was amazing. Thanks to the writers and audience for a great show. Look for the text soon!
XO,
Mel
XO,
Mel
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
1,000 Words one year anniversary! And Farewell My Lovely Hein
Well, with teaching and writing and more teaching and more writing and more parenting, man I've been away awhile. But welcome to our upcoming reading! We're celebrating a year of fastidious writing and reading while drinking wine, etc. Here's the press release for our reading on Monday, November 3--come out and take your mind off of the election the next day!
XO,
Mel
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 1,000 WORDS ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY READING AND MATTHEW HATTIE HEIN BON VOYAGE PARTY
7PM, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3 AT THE MAIDEN, 639 SE MORRISON STREET (503-232-5553)
CONTACT: MEL FAVARA, 971-506-3340, mel.favara@gmail.com
Please join the 1,000 Words Reading Series for our one-year anniversary and local all-around performer Matthew Hattie Hein’s bon voyage party. Four great writers—Matthew Hattie Hein, Kristy Athens, Parker Staley, and Geneva Chao, will each read four tiny pieces written for the occasion over the past month, based on a set of prompts and arbitrary rules provided by series curator Mel Favara on the theme TRANSIT. It will be fast and fancy if not furious. Vancouver emo-punk trio We Play Quiet will also play.
Reader Bios
Geneva Chao's work has appeared in Satellite Telephone, Boxkite, Aught, Transfer, Diagram, Can We Have Our Ball Back?, and a host of other magazines you may not have heard of. Her chapbook National, Anthem is forthcoming from Oakland's Taxt Press. She is hoping for a Bay Bridge series in 2009 and agrees with Marianne Moore about baseball: "Studded with stars in belt and crown,/the Stadium is an adastrium./O flashing Orion,/your stars are muscled like the lion."
Kristy Athens is a freelance writer and editor who writes short fiction from a small farm near Husum, Washington. She coordinates the Columbia Center for the Arts Plein Air Writing Exhibition and serves on the board of the Hood River County Cultural Trust. From 1999 to 2006, she ran the Oregon Book Awards and Oregon Literary Fellowships programs of Literary Arts. Her work has been published in a number of magazines, newspapers and literary journals, including Poor Mojo’s Alamanc(k), 2 Gyrlz Quarterly apt and forthcoming in Greenbeard.
Parker Staley was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a descendant of British Lieutenant Robert Maynard, who struck the first of the blows that felled Blackbeard. Also, he (not Maynard) almost drowned in the Deschutes once, as a child, some time ago. He has an MFA from New Mexico State University.
Matthew Hattie Hein bikes to and from PSU, where he teaches English.
He contributes to the PDX Writer Daily (www.pdxwriting.blogspot.com),
and recently published musings on Portland hipster houses in Oregon
Humanities magazine. His thoughts on the parlor game Psychic
Dictionary appeared in the last issue of Verb, and he occasionally
sings on 7" records.
We Play Quiet: August, 2006 saw the birth of a fantastic thing. I'll give you a hint: it wasn't babies. We Play Quiet is the trio of Zachary Holcomb, Reid Trevarthen, and Ethan Camp playing their own blend of the 80's, the 90's, the Weakerthans, and Weezer. This will be their fourth installment of 1000 Words; as usual, they have written a song that includes all of the prompts, in order.
XO,
Mel
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 1,000 WORDS ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY READING AND MATTHEW HATTIE HEIN BON VOYAGE PARTY
7PM, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3 AT THE MAIDEN, 639 SE MORRISON STREET (503-232-5553)
CONTACT: MEL FAVARA, 971-506-3340, mel.favara@gmail.com
Please join the 1,000 Words Reading Series for our one-year anniversary and local all-around performer Matthew Hattie Hein’s bon voyage party. Four great writers—Matthew Hattie Hein, Kristy Athens, Parker Staley, and Geneva Chao, will each read four tiny pieces written for the occasion over the past month, based on a set of prompts and arbitrary rules provided by series curator Mel Favara on the theme TRANSIT. It will be fast and fancy if not furious. Vancouver emo-punk trio We Play Quiet will also play.
Reader Bios
Geneva Chao's work has appeared in Satellite Telephone, Boxkite, Aught, Transfer, Diagram, Can We Have Our Ball Back?, and a host of other magazines you may not have heard of. Her chapbook National, Anthem is forthcoming from Oakland's Taxt Press. She is hoping for a Bay Bridge series in 2009 and agrees with Marianne Moore about baseball: "Studded with stars in belt and crown,/the Stadium is an adastrium./O flashing Orion,/your stars are muscled like the lion."
Kristy Athens is a freelance writer and editor who writes short fiction from a small farm near Husum, Washington. She coordinates the Columbia Center for the Arts Plein Air Writing Exhibition and serves on the board of the Hood River County Cultural Trust. From 1999 to 2006, she ran the Oregon Book Awards and Oregon Literary Fellowships programs of Literary Arts. Her work has been published in a number of magazines, newspapers and literary journals, including Poor Mojo’s Alamanc(k), 2 Gyrlz Quarterly apt and forthcoming in Greenbeard.
Parker Staley was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a descendant of British Lieutenant Robert Maynard, who struck the first of the blows that felled Blackbeard. Also, he (not Maynard) almost drowned in the Deschutes once, as a child, some time ago. He has an MFA from New Mexico State University.
Matthew Hattie Hein bikes to and from PSU, where he teaches English.
He contributes to the PDX Writer Daily (www.pdxwriting.blogspot.com),
and recently published musings on Portland hipster houses in Oregon
Humanities magazine. His thoughts on the parlor game Psychic
Dictionary appeared in the last issue of Verb, and he occasionally
sings on 7" records.
We Play Quiet: August, 2006 saw the birth of a fantastic thing. I'll give you a hint: it wasn't babies. We Play Quiet is the trio of Zachary Holcomb, Reid Trevarthen, and Ethan Camp playing their own blend of the 80's, the 90's, the Weakerthans, and Weezer. This will be their fourth installment of 1000 Words; as usual, they have written a song that includes all of the prompts, in order.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
We've Been Away Too Long
But are back. The next reading goes down Monday, September 8 at the Maiden. Featured readers will include Jill Stukenberg, Joe Pitkin, Kate Schwab, and Eric Stern, taking a break from fronting Vagabond Opera to write words without music. Our house band We Play Quiet has been busy--they just played on KPSU & threw us a nice shout out--listen to their music & musings here: http://archive.kpsu.org/. Our next theme is Beginnings, so get ready to begin tearing things up, I guess. My daughter turned 2 since the last reading, and I'm finding it not at all terrible.
XO,
Mel
PS:
Here is the first prompt for the next reading--write it up if you want and let me know what you make.
Rules:
Your weekly piece should be veryclose to 250 words.
You may write each piece in the genre of your choice; you may write in
a different genre for each piece; you may write entirely disconnected
pieces, or pieces that hang together in a theme or plotline--writers
have succeeded wildly doing any/all of the above.
I will provide a phrase and several words as the prompt: you must use
the phrase and all of the words, but feel free to change person,
number, tense, or grammatical role as you like. I remember "nail"
particularly as a word people had fun with.
Keep the month's theme, BEGINNING, in mind as you write. Sort of near
the front of your mind.
And so, the prompt: write 250 words this week including the phrase
It is difficult to learn that you know nothing about
and the words
pry
erase
wing
table
and flurry.
XO,
Mel
PS:
Here is the first prompt for the next reading--write it up if you want and let me know what you make.
Rules:
Your weekly piece should be veryclose to 250 words.
You may write each piece in the genre of your choice; you may write in
a different genre for each piece; you may write entirely disconnected
pieces, or pieces that hang together in a theme or plotline--writers
have succeeded wildly doing any/all of the above.
I will provide a phrase and several words as the prompt: you must use
the phrase and all of the words, but feel free to change person,
number, tense, or grammatical role as you like. I remember "nail"
particularly as a word people had fun with.
Keep the month's theme, BEGINNING, in mind as you write. Sort of near
the front of your mind.
And so, the prompt: write 250 words this week including the phrase
It is difficult to learn that you know nothing about
and the words
pry
erase
wing
table
and flurry.
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