Monday, June 16, 2014

July 7th Readings: Paula Bomer, Michael Downs, and Megan Stielstra

(All Starts Here! events begin at 7 pm)



Paula Bomer is the author of the collection, Inside Madeleine (Soho Press, May 2014), the novel Nine Months (Soho Press, August 2012), which received exuberant reviews in The Atlantic, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, and elsewhere. Her collection, Baby and Other Stories (Word Riot Press, December 2010), received a starred review in Publishers Weekly, calling it a “lacerating take on marriage and motherhood…not one to share with the Mommy and Me group”, Kirkus Review deemed it “a worthy, if challenging, entry into the genre of transgressional fiction”, and O Magazine referred to it as a “brilliant, brutally raw debut.” Links to various work, interviews and more can be found here. She also is the publisher of Sententia Books and edits Sententia: The Literary Journal.






Michael Downs is the author of The Greatest Show (Louisiana State University Press), a collection of linked stories featuring the famous Hartford Circus Fire of 1944, in which a circus tent burned during a matinee killing more than 150 people. His first book book, House of Good Hope (University of Nebraska Press), won the River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize. His recent fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Missouri Review, New Letters, River Teeth, The Kenyon Review, and AARP: The Magazine. A former newspaper reporter, he has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Maryland State Arts Council, and the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation. He lives in Baltimore’s Hamilton neighborhood, and teaches at Towson University.







Megan Stielstra is the author of Once I Was Cool, Everyone Remain Calm and the Literary Director of the 2nd Story storytelling series. She’s told stories for all sorts of theaters, festivals, and bars including The Goodman, The Steppenwolf, and The Museum of Contemporary Art. Her writing has appeared in Best American Essays 2013, The Rumpus, The Nervous Breakdown, and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing at Columbia College Chicago.