Tag: AWP17

Episode 34 – Deleted Scenes (Part 2)

What begins as a letter to a long-lost childhood friend leads to meditation on the fragments of memory that linger after a person passes through our lives at a crucial stage…

Kicking off the second half of our special TLR team-up at the AWP conference in Washington D.C., Jessie Vail Aufiery reads “Unsilencing, Or, I Am Sorry for Not Writing Sooner” written by Minna Zallman Proctor.

pictured left to right Jessie Vail Aufiery and Minna Zallman Proctor

Switching it up, Jessie’s true-life tale unfolds from a child’s eye view of divorce and dating. It is an intimate examination of dangers real and perceived, and the ways kids choose to be both seen and heard. Here is Jessie Vail Aufiery’s story “Intruders” read by Minna Zallman Proctor.

These stories were performed live on February 9th at the 2017 Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) Conference & Bookfair. Click here to learn more about the storytellers.

Podcast narrated by Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons.

Episode 33 – Deleted Scenes (Part 1)

We were excited to team up with the editors of The Literary Review to present a special switched-up storytelling panel at the 50th AWP Conference & Bookfair in Washington D.C.

Our first true-life tale was written by No, YOU Tell It!’s own Mike Dressel who experiences the opposite of “ghosting” when an overseas fling takes a dark turn via text.

Here is “Armageddon in Bloom” written by Mike Dressel and read by Heather Lang.

Switching it up, our next “Deleted Scenes” story is a layered look at friendship, coffee rituals, and the uneven walking room between women and men. Mike Dressel reads “Walking Room: But Who Hasn’t Slept with a Married Man?” written by Heather Lang.

These stories were performed live on February 9th at the 2017 Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) Conference & Bookfair. Click here to learn more about the storytellers.

Podcast narrated by Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons.

NYTI & TLR team up at AWP17!

Our own Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons and Mike Dressel had a blast trading true-life tales with the editors of The Literary Review – Minna Zallman Proctor, Jessie Vail Aufiery, and Heather Lang – at the 2017 AWP Conference & Bookfair in Washington, D.C.

Here’s a few fun moments from our “Deleted Scenes” themed story swap on February 9th.

Audio soon! SUBSCRIBE to our podcast on iTunes and GooglePlay. Curious about what we do? Click here to WATCH and learn more about No, YOU Tell It!

Save the date for No, YOU Tell It! “Migration” back at our usual haunt Jimmy’s No. 43 on March 22nd at 7 pm!

What is “switched-up” storytelling? Watch and see!

Ever wonder what No, YOU Tell It! is all about? Take a look:

Thank you to friend and alum Ellie Dvorkin for producing this lovely inside look at No, YOU Tell It! Check out more of Ellie’s brillance as an actor and artist at elliedvorkin.com.

Want to see us in action? Good news! We’ve got two great shows coming up:

Can’t wait? Never fear. SUBSCRIBE to our podcast on iTunes or GooglePlay and give a listen to switched-up stories from our live shows.

Like what you hear? Click here to rate us and leave a review!

Meet Our “Deleted Scenes” Storytellers

ONE WEEK until our special “Deleted Scenes” show at the 2017 AWP Conference & Bookfair in Washington, D.C. Going to #AWP17? Join us on Thur, 2/9, at 12 noon (Marquis Salon 9 & 10, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Two)

Our switched-up storytellers have been working collaboratively over the last month to develop their true-life tales on the page. Before they flip scripts to perform each other’s story on stage, we wanted you to meet them!

From top to bottom: Jessie Vail Aufiery, Minna Zallman Proctor, Heather Lang, Mike Dressel. Artwork by Letisia Cruz.

Bios:

Jessie Vail Aufiery is a fiction writer, poet, and translator. She is the World Literature Editor for The Literary Review, and has an MFA from Fairleigh Dickinson University. She lives with her husband and twin daughters in Miami. You can read some of her recent work in issue #2 of jai-alai magazine, Issue 31 of Petite Hound Press, and in the anthology Paris, Etc.: Writing and Illustrations. Find her online at www.jessievailaufiery.com

Minna Zallman Proctor is the author of Landslide: True Stories, out this fall, and Do You Hear What I Hear? Her translation from Italian of Fleur Jaeggy’s speculative essays These Possible Lives is out this spring. She on the creative writing faculty at Fairleigh Dickinson University and Editor of The Literary Review. 

This month, Heather Lang was voted Best Local Writer or Poet by the readers of the Las Vegas-based Desert Companion magazineNevada’s NPR member radio station’s print publication. Heather teaches World Literature, Asian Literature, and English Composition at Nevada State College. Her poetry and prose have been published by or are forthcoming with December, The Normal School, Paper Darts, HOOT, Pleiades, and Whiskey Island, among others. Heather holds an MFA from Fairleigh Dickinson University, and she serves as Online Managing Editor of The Literary Review and Co-Editor of Petite Hound Press. Last year her writing process was on exhibit at the Nevada Humanities Program Gallery. www.heatherlang.cassera.net

Mike Dressel is a writer and educator. His stories have appeared in LitbreakThe James Franco ReviewChelsea Station, and Vol. 1 Brooklyn, among others, as well as in the anthology Best Gay Stories 2016 published by Lethe Press. He was recently the recipient of an NEH Summer Seminar fellowship. He is a frequent guest judge at The Prose Bowl, a flash fiction reading series.

“Deleted Scenes” show at AWP17

We live our lives in a trance, constantly spinning, focused on our never-ending list of chores. More and more, I’ve been forcing myself to stop and take notice.

As we spin, spin, spin toward our special show the 2017 AWP Conference & Bookfair in Washington, D.C., thank goodness we took a moment to reach out to artist Letisia Cruz — who along with storyteller Heather Lang is one-half of the power duo behind Petite Hound Press — and request she create original artwork inspired by our upcoming theme “Deleted Scenes.”

You can’t help but stop and take notice of the result.

Read more about Letisia’s inspiration for this pause-worthy piece:

I’ve been thinking a lot about being present. Sometimes I drive to work and have no recollection of how I arrived. Or I drive home, park my car and walk into the kitchen before realizing I meant to stop at the grocery store. Sometimes I wake up startled in the middle of the night and ask myself: where am I? We live our lives in a trance, constantly spinning, focused on our never-ending list of chores. More and more, I’ve been forcing myself to stop and take notice. To breathe. To admire the chaos that is day-to-day life and not allow the constant parade of thoughts that the restless mind serves up to keep me from finding peace in the present moment. More and more I’ve been tearing up my to-do list, turning off my phone, and focusing on the here and now. There is beauty in the world, overwhelming, awe-inspiring beauty, and we must force ourselves to be present in order to fully appreciate it. 

For more fantastic work from Letisia Cruz check out Petite Hound Press – a miniature press based out of Las Vegas and Miami run by two tattooed, poetry-writing, art-loving ladies. Visit petitehoundpress.com.

Going to #AWP17? Join us on Thursday, 2/9 at 12 noon (Marquis Salon 9 & 10, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Two) to hear switched-up stories inspired by the theme “Deleted Scenes” from Mike Dressel, Minna Proctor, Jessie Vail Aufiery, and Heather Lang.  Hosted by Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons.

Click here to RSVP via Facebook.