Have you heard about #WorldReadAloudDay? Now you have! More answers this Friday, Feb 1st at 7 pm when The Astoria Bookshop hosts a World Read Along Day event, with four local authors including our own Kelly Jean.
Celebrate and curate a love of literacy and storytelling with community members and loved ones (and, if you like, bring a story of your own).
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Angela Cobb’s story is a romantic liaison set against the backdrop of Hurricane Sandy. After the storm subsides, she finds the attempt to recapture that intimacy fraught and even the best-laid plans might require a “Plan B.”
Kicking off the second half of our “Mayday” show, recorded live at The Astoria Bookshop on May 10th, Ryan Holmes performs.
Left: Ryan Holmes and Angela Cobb. Right: Great crowd at The Astoria Bookshop.
Now, switching it up, the narrator of our next story finds his inability to refuse another wedding invitation leading to a series of embarrassing social interactions, forced mirth, and ultimately, a dark conclusion. Here’s Angela Cobb performing “Terror in Virginia” written by Ryan Holmes.
For more info on Angela Cobb’s upcoming shows visit
Ryan Holmes is the host of the Internet radio show and podcast, BlazinRy Radio, visit http://blazinryradio.com or download the podcast for free at http://bit.ly/blazinryitunes.
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In the first half of our “Mayday” show, recorded live at The Astoria Bookshop on May 10th, Allison Escoto is forced to listen to an unexpected SOS of the heart. Here is M. Skye Holly reading, “Vessel in Distress.”
Top left: M. Skye Holly. Right: Allison Escoto. Group left to right: Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons, M. Skye Holly, Angel Cobb, Ryan Holmes, Allison Escoto, and Mike Dressel
Switching it up, M. Skye Holly goes back to school to receive her MFA in Creative Writing from Fairleigh Dickinson University and learns the difference between the family you’re given and the family you make. Allison Escoto reads, “Higher Degrees of Grief.”
Part 2 is coming soon! SUBSCRIBE and SHARE our Podcast today!
What a glorious night of story swapping at The Astoria Bookshop. Thank you to everyone who came out on May 10th for our “Mayday” show!
pictured left to right: M Skye Holly, Angela Cobb, Ryan Holmes, and Allison Escoto
Podcast episodes featuring the live show available soon here and on iTunes. SUBSCRIBE today!
Our “Mayday” show is tonight, 6:30 at The Astoria Bookshop! While you wait, give a LISTEN to our own Kelly Jean on Episode 2 of Newtown Literary’s Queens Writes Podcast.
Newtown Literary Alliance Executive Director, Tim Fredrick, and Newtown Literary Editor, Jackie Sherbow, speak with four local Queens writers, Nancy Agabian, Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons, Catherine LaSota, and Joseph Salvatore about literary citizenship—including how to get involved with your literary community and how to write book reviews and author interviews.
The No, YOU Tell It! team took a break from casting the pods this week to participate in (and win!!) Newtown Literary’s Second Annual Book Trivia Night in Astoria! We had so much fun and were happy to help raise money for Issue 7 of the journal, which comes out soon and includes our own Kelly Jean’s personal essay Waked.
Newtown Literary is published by Newtown Literary Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping support and promote new and emerging writers living in Queens, NY. Submissions are now open for Issue 8 until Jan 10th, 2016! Find out more here.
Pictured left to right is our wicked smaaat team: Erika Iverson, David Trudo, Jessica Cannon, Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons, and Mike Dressel. Speaking of podcasts, click here to give a listen to Jessica Cannon – literary savvy voice over artist and NYTI alum featured in Episode 6!
What do you win at a Book Trivia night? A bag of books from our friends at The Astoria Bookshop, plus TONS of other great local prizes! Thank you to Newtown Literary and everyone who worked on organizing the event.
Two weeks until our last show of 2015! See you at No, YOU Tell It! ‘Temper, Temper’ on 11/17 – 7 pm at Jimmy’s No. 43. FREE! RSVP via Facebook.
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This episode features a pair of stories from our first No, YOU Tell It! alumni reading at The Astoria Bookshop, written and performed by returning participants Marcos Stafne and Jeff Wills (pictured left to right).
We’ve all had to deal with erratic, uncooperative co-workers. But when that co-worker is Fantasia, a 20-foot, 300-pound albino Burmese python, things get a bit tricky. When Fantasia escapes her enclosure at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Marcos Stafne has to act, despite his lifelong antipathy toward snakes.
Snake Dreams – written by Marcos Stafne & performed by Jeff Wills.
Switching it up, in Jeff Wills’ second-person narrative a wintry morning commute becomes the stuff of myth. Our narrator embarks on an odyssey through the frozen boroughs of New York, navigating icy avenues, crowded buses, and stifling subway trains in order to drop his daughter off at daycare and get his wife, and himself, to work on time.
Errant – written by Jeff Wills & performed by Marcos Stafne.
These stories from our alumni show on July 17th, 2014 were directed by Mike Dressel. Thank you to The Astoria Bookshop for hosting our alumni reading! Visit them online at www.astoriabookshop.com.
Marcos Stafne, is a proud alumni and supporter of the No, YOU Tell It! family. His first NYTI story, “The Anxiety of Emptiness,” was featured in November 2012’s Urban Dwellers series. Marcos has been working in museums for the past 20 years, and writes for various blogs and scholarly journals. Marcos splits time between White River Junction, Vermont (town slogan: it’s not so bad) and Brooklyn, NY.
Jeff Wills earned his BFA from VCU, and was a working actor for fifteen years before taking a chance on the fast-paced glamour of a career in museum administration. He has worked at the Rubin Museum of Art for four years, which requires virtually none of his oratory, circus, dialect, or Commedia del’Arte training. Jeff teaches workshops and private lessons in acting in general, and physical theatre in specific. In addition to acting, teaching and directing, Jeff has written three full-length plays of his own, collaborated on writing a half a dozen more, and takes full responsibility for innumerable short stories. He is dad to a three-year-old daughter and has a son due in December 2015. For more on Jeff’s creations and preoccupations, please visit www.JeffWills.net.
