The Loudest Blog

Ahoy!

2010-12-02T10:39:00.000-08:00

WOOT!

2010-11-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

Please join us for an evening of poetry, stories, and puppetry!

Featuring:

- Anthony Abboreno

- Nick Admussen

- Heather Dundas

- Elizabeth Wilcox

Plus, an extra-special performance of AND THE WHALE SAID..., a Moby Dick puppet show performed by Nicole Antebi, Shaoling Ma, Heather Parlato, and Linda Wei.

Doors open at 7pm and the reading will start sometime around 8pm.

See you there!

Bios:

Nick Admussen's work appears in publications like the Kenyon Review Online, the Boston Review and in Blackbird: his first chapbook, Movie Plots, is due out this winter as an Epiphany Editions Book Kit. He is a Ph. D. candidate in modern Chinese literature, preparing a dissertation on contemporary Chinese prose poetry.

Nicole Antebi is a Los Angeles based artist and organizer. Her work has been exhibited internationally. Recent projects include the exhibition Through the Looking Glass: The Los Angeles Aqueduct with May Jong at Sea and Space Explorations 2009, the book Failure! Experiments in Aesthetic and Social Practices (co-edited with Colin Dickey and Robby Herbst), published by the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest Press 2007, the exhibition Failure Ridiculous Terrible Wonderful at Park Projects in Los Angeles 2007 (co-organized with Robby Herbst and Irene Tsatsos), and the exhibition, Salton Sea Projects, at Kristi Engle Gallery 2007.

Heather Dundas is a College Doctoral Fellow in Fiction for the Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing at USC. In earlier incarnations, she was a playwright, producer, lyricist, teaching artist, writer of cooking shows, editor of medical textbooks, and was once hired to write a dramatic version of The Odyssey for fifth graders, but told to leave out “all sex, violence and pagan worship.” Her plays have been produced around the country.

Elizabeth Wilcox grew up in the DC area, accidentally moved to Los Angeles with no goals, and is now happily a PhD student in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California. She was recently named a runner up in the Indiana Review's 1/2 K Prize, and she has work forthcoming there and in La Petite Zine. Her poems have also appeared in such publications as Gloom Cupboard, HazMat Literary Review, and Rhino.

The Good Times Are Back, Again.

2010-09-17T13:58:00.000-07:00

Alex Young is a goddamned bad liar, but a good goddamned poet.

Michael Reid Busk brings back the '80s.

Stacy Gnall reads a bone-chilling poem about MURDER!

Sexual Napalm about to explode.

KZ launches her solo career.

So does Stewart Grace.

Lisa Locascio reads a Love Story (with cocaine, prostitutes, and strippers).

Aaron Belz began with his accessible poems and then read the more artistically relevant ones.

SUMMER MAY BE ENDING, BUT WE ARE NOT

2010-09-06T15:53:00.000-07:00

It's Autumn in Los Angeles which can only mean two things: It's time to hook up the garden hose and spray down the roof. And it's time to put on your fancy socks and slide out the door for the first LOUDEST VOICE of the 2010/2011 season.

Featuring fiction and poetry from the too hot to touch:

MICHAEL REID BUSK
STACY GNALL
LISA LOCASCIO
ALEX YOUNG

and special guest
AARON BELZ, author of Lovely, Raspberry (Persea, 2010)

"Aaron Belz's poetry reminds us that poetry should be bright, friendly, surprising, and totally committed to everything but itself. Reading him is like dreaming of a summer vacation and then taking it." - John Ashbery

Prepare for those fancy socks to be rocked off and your roof to be put on fire by TLV house band, SEXUAL NAPALM!!!

Doors @ 7PM
Reading @ 7:30PM

Admission is free.

21+

Bios:
AARON BELZ is is originally from St. Louis, Missouri. His second book came out in June, Lovely, Raspberry (Persea, 2010). There’s more information at his website, http://belz.net/

MICHAEL REID BUSK's work appears or is forthcoming in a number of journals, including Gettysburg Review, Prairie Schooner, Nimrod, Madison Review, Lake Effect, and The Pinch.

STACY GNALL is from Cleveland, Ohio. Her first book, Heart First into the Forest is forthcoming from Alice James Books. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Cincinnati Review, The Florida Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Indiana Review, The Laurel Review, The Spoon River Poetry Review, and Prairie Schooner.

LISA LOCASCIO is from Chicago. Her work has appeared recently in the online edition of American Short Fiction, The Northwest Review, and Fifth Wednesday Journal.

ALEX YOUNG is a poet and critic who comes to Los Angeles by way of Tulsa, OK, Westcliffe, CO, New York, NY, Cooper Landing, AK, and most recently Tangier, Morocco. Some of his recent poems and reviews can be found in The Brooklyn Rail, Nejma (Tangier), and newwest.net.

Repeat Offenders

2010-08-09T10:41:00.000-07:00

Over at the The Offending Adam, friend of The Loudest Voice and TOA Managing Editor, Cody Todd, introduces two poems and a story by another TLV favorite, Bonnie Nadzam. Bonnie's story, "Tattoo," is so good we've reprinted it in the TLV anthology, THE LOUDEST VOICE (Volume One). Copies are still available and are being stored in the back of my car until we can figure out how to distribute them online. If you'd like a copy, enter to win a free book over at goodreads.com, or email me

In other Cody Todd and Bonnie Nadzam news, check out Cody's awesome Sin City tattoo and poem "Portrait" over at the Tattooed Poet Project. And look for Bonnie's stunning first novel, LAMB, coming soon from Other Press.

Also, check out TLV co-founder, Amaranth Borsuk's very cool Between Page and Screen chapbook over at Silliman's Blog. Read her latest collaborative translations with Gabriela Jauregui at Improbable Object. And wish her well as she moves to Boston to complete a Mellon postdoctorate at M.I.T.

Finally, check back soon for news on the reading series. We've big plans for 2010.

You look dazzling this afternoon, my dear

2010-05-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who came out and let themselves be dazzled by writers from the TLV fall 2009 and Spring 2010 workshops!

These were some radiant writers -- they actually emitted light, as you can see from the photos!

The lineup:

Zak Cheney-Rice

Laura Small

Nick Bradvica

Kimberly Newberry

Julia Cooperman

Tiffany Tsai

Bryanne Cook

Sara Edwards

Victor Luo

Watch your inboxes for announcements of the Fall workshop. And be sure to email theloudestvoice (at) gmail.com if you would like to be added to our mailing list!

TLV Student Reading: You Will Be Dazzled

2010-05-01T12:09:00.000-07:00

Please Join TLV as we celebrate the end of the spring semester and the end of a year of poetry and fiction by our brilliant workshop members.

Date: Thursday, May 6, 2010
Time: 4:30 PM
Location: Ide Room, THH 420, Taper Hall, USC
Street: 3501 Trousdale Parkway
City: Los Angeles, CA

Featuring:

Nicholas Bradvica
Zachary Cheney-Rice
Bryanne Cook
Julia Cooperman
Sarah Edwards
Laila Ekboir
Victor Luo
Kimberly Newberry
Laura Small &
Tiffany Tsai

These are all undergraduate students from across the disciplines at the University of Southern California.

Your hosts for the evening are:

Andrew Allport
Amaranth Borsuk
Michael Busk &
Brandon Som

Who acted as this year's workshop leaders.

Each reading will be a surprise, but we anticipate mystery, desire, talking animals, post-apocalyptic environs, scintillating dialog and witty detail.

We are not biased when we say this will be one of the best readings you attend this year.

Also, there will be food and drink.
Please spread the word and invite friends!

RSVP through our Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=122070274475167

And interested writers should look for us again this fall with a workshop by Bryan Hurt and Bonnie Nadzam! If you are not on the mailing list, email theloudestvoice (at) gmail.com -- we would be happy to add you!

Another Wonderful Season Concludes

2010-04-16T16:04:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who came out last night for the last TLV of the semester!

We laughed, we blushed, we sang along to "Total Eclipse of the Heart," a little-known tax-day tune. Thanks, Sexual Napalm, for blowing our minds.

Thanks Fox Henry Frazier, Janalynn Bliss, Susan McCabe, Andrew Allport, and Amaranth Borsuk for your words.

Thanks Bryan Hurt for being a masterful master of ceremonies.

Thanks, as always, to our intelligent and dead sexy audience.

Here's hoping the next 4 years are just as amazing as the past 4 have been.

See you this fall for more occult activities!

Love,
The Loudest Voice

P.S. If you didn't get an anthology, write us!

Bunnies and Books

2010-04-12T12:14:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who picked up a copy of our anthology and came out to our reading at Dikeou Collection on Saturday at AWP!!
We had a fantastic time and hope you did too!

2010-04-03T13:54:00.001-07:00

The Loudest Voice presents: Tax Day.

2010-04-02T07:11:00.000-07:00

See you in Denver!

2010-03-22T08:48:00.001-07:00

If you'll be at AWP, please come say hello to us at our reading on Saturday, April 10!

The event kicks off with a free happy hour, followed by readings from TLV writers affiliated with the University of Southern California.

These writers also appear in our forthcoming anthology, The Loudest Voice: Volume 1, which is at the printer and should be in our (and your) hot little hands at AWP!

Here are full details on the reading.

Saturday, April 10 from 6:45 PM to 8:30 PM
DIKEOU Collection
(Two blocks North of the Hyatt Regency Denver)
1615 California Street
Denver, CO 80202-3714

Absolutely Free

Join The Loudest Voice for a happy hour and reading hosted by Bryan Hurt and Amaranth Borsuk, featuring fantastic literary stylings, wine and snacks (to make the hour even happier), and of course, rockets and robots. Lots of rockets and robots. (Maybe.)

Featuring our special guest Dana Johnson, author of Break Any Woman Down!
with:
Neil Aitken
Andrew Allport
Michael Busk
Stewart Grace
Katherine Karlin
Bonnie Nadzam
Jessica Piazza
and Cody Todd.

Musical guests TBA!

Rocket to Outer Space and Back on Thrilling The Loudest Voice!

2010-01-12T09:42:00.000-08:00

Welcome to 2010! The loudest Voice is pleased to invite you on a fantastic voyage. Join our intergalactic crew on an adventure unlike any we have taken you on before -- featuring gifted and dangerous girls, educated young people, brain thieves, and words with minds of their own.

Featuring their earthly avatars:
Mary Ann David
Colin Dickey
Heather Dundas
Kate Durbin
and Bonnie Nazdam

Mary Ann Davis has taken a six-year hiatus from poetry, recently returning to it as a means of surviving her dissertation. Before pursuing a PhD in the dept of English at USC, she received an MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan. She is the winner of a Hopwood Award in Poetry (from UM), and the Moses Award (from USC). She doesn't believe in the divide between the creative and the critical.

Colin Dickey is the author of "Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius," published in Fall of 2009 by Unbridled Books. He is also the co-editor of "Failure! Experiments in Social and Aesthetic Practices," and his work has appeared in Cabinet, TriQuarterly, The Santa Monica Review, and elsewhere. He is currently a contributor to Lapham's Quarterly's online Roundtable blog.

Heather Dundas is a College Doctoral Fellow in Fiction for the Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing at USC. In earlier incarnations, she was a playwright, producer, lyricist, teaching artist, writer of cooking shows, editor of medical textbooks, and was once hired to write a dramatic version of The Odyssey for fifth graders, but told to leave out “all sex, violence and pagan worship.” Her plays have been produced around the country. “Five Things About Basquiat” is part of a collection of stories set in an art museum.

Kate Durbin's first full-length collection of poetry, The Ravenous Audience, is available from Black Goat Press/ Akashic Books. Her chapbook, Fragments Found in a 1937 Aviator's Boot, is available from Dancing Girl Press. She lives in Whittier, California. Check out her website at www.katedurbin.com.

Bonnie Nadzam is currently the Daehler Fellow in Creative Writing at The Colorado College. She has fiction published or forthcoming in Epoch, The Kenyon Review, Storyquarterly, The Alaska Quarterly Review, and several others. Her short story collection The Devil's Circle was a finalist for the 2009 Flannery O'Connor Award in Short Fiction. She is a PhD candidate in the University of Southern California's Creative Writing and Literature program.

Happy Birthday!

2009-11-13T13:19:00.000-08:00

Thursday's reading was good fun -- a little Gothic horror, a little role-playing, excellent music, and some fabulous shoes.

Thank you to everyone who came out and helped us devour the delicious strawberries and cream birthday cake from Ruby Bakery in Eagle Rock.

We celebrated the birthdays of all our friends born in November and December!

We'll be plotting our spring activities for the next few months, so tune in for information on our spring silent auction fundraiser, Mountain Bar reading series, AWP reading, and undergraduate writers showcase.

We'll miss you all and we'll see you soon!

KA-POW!

2009-11-10T06:21:00.000-08:00

********* SHAZAM! BIOS! *********

Tony Kemp's first book, "The Estrangement of the Past," is about the transformations in the Christian picture of world history from the 3rd century to the beginnning of the 20th, and how the present's attitude to the past was reversed from identification to estrangement. He has two books in progress, "The Materialist Ideology: Bacon to Sade," about the extremeties of early materialism, and "The School of the Dead," a novel of gothic horror (not for reading alone on stormy nights). He is also a collector of medieval swords and a student of their use.

Seth Michelson's most recent poetry chapbooks are Kaddish for My Unborn Son (Pudding House Publications, 2009) and House in a Hurricane (Big Table Publishing, 2009). His translation of the book of poetry El ghetto, by Argentine poet Tamara Kamenszain, is forthcoming this year from Syracuse University Press.

Elizabeth Wilcox grew up in the DC area, accidentally moved to Los Angeles with no goals, and is now happily a PhD student in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California. She was recently named a runner up in the Indiana Review's 1/2 K Prize, and she has work forthcoming there and in La Petite Zine. Her poems have also appeared in such publications as Gloom Cupboard and HazMat Literary Review. Elizabeth is currently working on a few highly specialized projects, one of which is to see how much chocolate milk she can consume before Christmas.

Genevieve Kaplan's poems have recently appeared in Copper Nickel, Cimarron Review, Gulf Coast, and Jubilat. She runs the Toad Press International Chapbook Series, which publishes contemporary translations, and someday she'll get a PhD in English and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. She likes burritos and ice cream, but she loves cookies best. Cookies, burritos, and ice cream, in that order.

Sean Bernard has or will have works in journals including Santa Monica Review, West Branch, The Texas Review, and Fourteen Hills. He studied writing in both the Pac-10 and Big Ten conferences. The Pac-10 is better at baseball. He likes burritos and ice cream and he teaches at the University of La Verne, where he edits the journal Prism Review (submissions open, please send to us, I'm happy to give info out after the reading). If you're tempted to draw any connections between tonight's story and his current job, well.

The Kings of Neon are an 80's cover band. Stewart Grace is a poet, book artist, and musical powerhouse.

Found Object -- Exquisite Corpse

2009-10-07T10:33:00.000-07:00

From our Bon Voyage reading last spring...

First of Fall!

2009-10-02T18:56:00.000-07:00

October 1, 2009: TLV "The First of Fall"

2009-09-20T15:44:00.001-07:00

Bring your friends, your enemies, and your frenemies!

Please join us for the first Loudest Voice reading of Fall, 2009, a night that's set to unite writers from both sides of the aisle in a gesture of profound empathy and youthful excitement.

Featuring poetry and fiction by a fantastic lineup up of new and returning writers in the USC PhD in Literature and Creative Writing Program:

Mark Irwin
Jessica Piazza
Jackson Bliss
Lisa Locascio
& elise suklje martin

Including music by the elusive Henry Wolfe Gummer!

Details: Thursday, October 1, 2009, 7:00 -- 9:00 PM
The Mountain Bar
475 Gin Ling Way
Los Angeles, CA

We hope to see you there,
The Loudest Voice Crew

*********
BIOS:

Hailing from Chicago, Jackson Bliss is the winner of the 2007 Sparks Prize in Fiction. Having lived in Seattle, Portland, New York, West Africa and Argentina, Jackson is a travel junkie, crossing lines of longitude whenever he can, both in his writing and in coach. Armed with a MFA
from the University of Notre Dame and a nasty obsession for college football, Jackson is now a PhD student in literature and creative writing at SC (holla). He has work published in: the Kenyon Review, Notre Dame Review, Connecticut Review, African American Review, Stand Magazine in the UK, South Loop Review, Writers Post Journal, Ink Collective, Pittsburgh Quarterly, 3:am Magazine, Word Riot, Fringe
Magazine, DJ Booth, and the Denver Syntax, among others.

Lisa Locascio was born in 1984 and raised in River Forest, Illinois. She holds an MFA in Fiction from New York University and is currently Virginia B. Middleton fellow at the University of Southern California’s
PhD program in Literature and Creative Writing. She has recently completed her first novel, Peculiar Qualifications, a narrative about desire and alienation set in the suburbs of Chicago. Lisa’s writing has appeared in The Northwest Review, Joyland Chicago, Fifth Wednesday Journal, The Minetta Review, Prairie Margins, and Lake Affect.

elise suklje martin is a bibliophile-gypsy-sagittarius-iconoclast-poet from los angeles & ljubljana . . .

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Jessica Piazza now lives in Los Angeles while pursuing a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California. She is Founding Editor of Bat City Review, and her poems have most recently appeared in 42 Opus, Barrelhouse, Barefoot Muse, No Tell Motel, Rattle and Pebble Lake Review. Her most recent projects include a series of short stories in verse, and a book of personal essays (thankfully, not in verse.)

Mark Irwin was born in Faribault, Minnesota, and has lived throughout the United States and abroad in France and Italy. His poetry and essays have appeared widely in many literary magazines including Antaeus, The American Poetry Review, The Atlantic, Georgia Review, The Kenyon Review, Paris Review, Poetry, The Nation, New England Review, and the New Republic. He has taught at a number of universities and colleges including Case Western Reserve, the University of Iowa, Ohio University, the University of Denver, the University of Colorado/Boulder, the University of Nevada, and Colorado College. The author of six collections of poetry, The Halo of Desire (1987), Against the Meanwhile, Wesleyan University Press (1989), Quick, Now, Always, BOA (1996), White City, BOA (2000), Bright Hunger, BOA (2004), and Tall If, New Issues (2008), he has also translated two volumes of poetry, one from the French and one from the Romanian. Recognition for his work includes The Nation/Discovery Award, four Pushcart Prizes, National
Endowment for the Arts and Ohio Art Council Fellowships, two Colorado Council for the Arts Fellowships, two Colorado Book Awards, the James Wright Poetry Award, and fellowships from the Fulbright, Lilly, and Wurlitzer Foundations. He lives in Colorado, and Los Angeles, where he currently teaches in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at the University of Southern California.

Welcome Back!

2009-09-09T12:09:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who came out for our gathering at Bacaro tonight!

The food and drink were delicious, and your company was delightful. A few people left delirious, but everyone's behavior was de-lovely.

Keep your eyes peeled for the flyer for our first reading of the semester, October 1, 2009. It will feature Mark Irwin, Jackson Bliss, Lisa Locascio, elise suklje martin, and Jessica Piazza!

Cody Todd at the Cobalt Cafe

2009-07-15T21:21:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who came out to the Cobalt Cafe in Canoga Park last night for Cody Todd's reading.

We were very proud to present Cody to the Cobalt Cafe audience, and Rick Lupert was a fantastic host. His broadside of Cody's "Tupac Shakur" will be available on the Poetry Superhighway website soon, so be sure to check it out if you missed your chance to buy the hard copy.

Cody Todd is the author of To Frankenstein, My Father (2007, Proem Press). His poems have appeared in Hunger Mountain, Faultline, Bat City Review, Salt Hill, The Pedestal and are forthcoming in the Konundrum Engine Literary Review the Columbia Review and the Georgetown Review. He was born and raised in Denver and received an MFA from Western Michigan University. He currently lives in Los Angeles and is a Virginia Middleton Fellow in the PhD program in English-Literature/Creative Writing at the University of Southern California.

It's so hard to say goodbye...

2009-04-26T17:48:00.001-07:00

But we had to. And you helped make this reading one of our best this year, so thanks to all who read, and all who attended, and all who ate chocolate chocolate chip pecan cookies. We'll see you this fall!

Our Wonderful Audience

Bryan Hurt

Stewart Grace

Jonathan Hamrick

Andrew Allport

Josh Bernstein

Gabriela Jauregui

Bon Voyage!

The Flying Jonathan Hamrick does Bok doing Ball

2009-04-20T18:19:00.001-07:00

The Loudest Voice Cometh

2009-04-09T17:03:00.000-07:00

Please join us for the last Loudest Voice of the semester...and the last Loudest Voice for Professor Katherine Karlin, who leaves LA for Manhattan (Kansas) this summer.

Featuring an array of performers, including:

-Guest poet Gabriela Jauregui, author of Controlled Decay (Akashic, 2008)

-Fiction by Katherine Karlin and Josh Bernstein

-Poetry by Stewart Grace

-Mimicry and theft by Jonathan Hamrick

&&And&&

Buccal Helmholtz resonances by Andrew Allport (accompanied by guitar).

Hosted, as ever, by Bryan Hurt.

Joshua Bernstein is a second year creative writing Ph.D. at USC. He writes almost exclusively about war, though he also enjoys sex (as a subject). His recent work is forthcoming in The Crab Orchard Review, Armchair General, and the Truth About the Fact: A Journal of Non-Fiction. Some of his prior accolades include a Fulbright Fellowship, the John Gunyon Prize for Non-Fiction, and two Honorable Mentions in The Atlantic’s Student Writing Contest. He’s moving to Israel in a couple months, so this is probably going to be his last reading at the Mountain Bar, sadly—at least for the time-being.

Stewart Grace has attempted several occupations in an effort to satisfy both his creative and practical interests: from paralegal work to bookbinding, "mannying" to internet marketing. Every year or two he skippers sailboats in fantastic tropical locations and forces a few of his friends to come and be his crew. Next time it could be you. Most consistently, he's been a poet, completing his BA in English and Creative Writing at the University of Virginia in 2005, and currently pursuing his PhD in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California.

Jonathan Hamrick has been interested in the idea or concept of "poetry" for a long time, but it is only after learning about the recent avant-garde that he's been able to put some of his ideas into practice. The theme for his eight minutes might perhaps be mimicry and theft.

Gabriela Jauregui (b. Mexico City, 1979) is the author of Controlled Decay (Akashic Books/Black Goat Press, 2008). She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UC Riverside and an MA in Comparative Literature from UC Irvine. Her critical and creative work has been published in journals and anthologies in the US, Mexico, and Europe, including, most recently, in New American Writing, The Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, The Afro Hispanic Review and in The Aesthetics of Risk (JRP Ringier, 2008). Gabriela is a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature at USC and a Soros Fellow. She lives and works in Los Angeles and Mexico City. You can find her on the web at: http://www.gabrielajauregui.net

Katherine Karlin's fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The Pushcart Prize, New Stories from the South, ZYZZYVA, One Story, Alaska Quarterly Review and numerous other journals. In the fall of 2009 she begins teaching creative writing at Kansas State University.

Special Musical Guest:

Andrew Allport plays and sings in and around Los Angeles, land of merchandisable dreams. His myspace page is /drewallport. An album, Face to Face, is due sometime next year.

TLV: Trust When Drunk

2009-02-06T07:23:00.001-08:00

Another packed house at the Mountain Bar:

Bryan Hurt reads a short story about zombies, murder, Internet pop-up ads, tax evasion, and more!

Elizabeth Wilcox - International Woman of Intrigue - tells us how to better barricade a door. In verse!

Emily Fridlund says the best kind of children are children locked in attics!

Charles Shipley + keyboard = Your next American Idol!

Eric Gudas - author of Beautiful Monster - doesn't need a mic!

Neil Aikten - full-time poet, part-time Canadian, and author of The Lost Country of Sight - sends us home!

Pop and Sizzle - The Loudest Voice 1/29/9

2009-01-21T12:58:00.000-08:00

Neil Tangaroa Aitken is the author of The Lost Country of Sight (Anhinga Press, 2008), winner of the 2007 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry. His work has appeared in Crab Orchard Review, The Drunken Boat, Ninth Letter, Poetry Southeast, Sou'wester, and elsewhere; and he edits Boxcar Poetry Review, an online poetry journal that features reviews and interviews pertaining to first books. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Neil grew up in Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and the western parts of the United States and Canada. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Brigham Young University, an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of California - Riverside, and is currently working on a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Southern California.

Emily Fridlund grew up in the Twin Cities and received her M.F.A. in fiction from Washington University in Saint Louis in 2004. She has published work in Boston Review, New Orleans Review, Quick Fiction, The Portland Review, The Great River Review, and Beloit Poetry Journal. After teaching writing for a year in Dalian, China, she returned to the United States, where she is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Southern California

Eric Gudas's poems, essays, and literary interviews have appeared in such publications as The American Poetry Review, Crazyhorse, The Iowa Review, Poetry Flash, and The Southern Review. He and his wife Alyssa Sherwood, an animator, live with their daughter in Pasadena, California. As a doctoral candidate in English at UCLA, Eric is working on a book-length study of Eleanor Ross Taylor's poetry.

Elizabeth Wilcox graduated from Yale University in 2005 with a B.A. in English. Her poems have appeared in Ghoti Magazine and HazMat Literary Review. After teaching 11th grade English for two years, where she became adept at tricking students into liking poetry before they knew what was happening to them, she moved to Los Angeles. She is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Southern California.

Bryan Hurt is a Ph.D. candidate in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California. His fiction has appeared in Hot Metal Bridge and Salt Hill.

Charlie Shipley's love for pop music was fiercest around the summer of '99, when Britney, Christina, and *NSYNC ruled the airwaves and forever predisposed him to over-the-top songs with memorable melodies. His musical tastes have broadened somewhat since then, but those and other influences have left an indelible mark on his music, which he began writing when he moved to LA to go to USC in 2006.

The Loudest Voice 11/13/2008

2008-11-11T18:27:00.000-08:00

The Loudest Voice announces its victorious return on Thursday, November 13th.

Join us for literature, fun, and drink at The Mountain Bar, located in Chinatown in downtown L.A. Reading starts promptly at 7PM. Doors open at 6PM.

We'll be featuring fiction and poetry from five unparalleled, inimitable and ultra-talented writers.

DANA JOHNSON is a native of Los Angeles and the author of BREAK ANY WOMAN DOWN, which was published in Fall 2001 by the University of Georgia Press , and which was a finalist for the first annual Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the Patterson Fiction Prize, and was the recipient of the 2000 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. Her other books include FLYOVER STATES and the forthcoming EYE TO EYE. Her short stories have appeared in Missouri Review, American Literary Review, Ninth Letter, and Mosaic, among other journals, and in the anthologies SHAKING THE TREE: A COLLECTION OF FICTION AND MEMOIR BY BLACK WOMEN (W. W. Norton) and THE DICTIONARY OF FAILED RELATIONSHIPS: 26 STORIES OF LOVE GONE WRONG (Three Rivers Press). She currently teaches in the literature and creative writing program at USC.

MICHAEL BUSK was born Catholic and Pentecostal in northern Indiana during the tail end of the first Reagan Administration. The seventh of eight high-octane siblings, he attended Notre Dame, where he wrote too much and drank too little, but at least had the comfort of returning home every night to Knute Rockne's old house, which was later occupied by Flannery O'Connor's fiancé. Although the forward pass was perfected in his backyard, he still believes a solid running game is the key to a successful offense. After graduating, he completed a master's at the University of Nebraska, where he survived homicidal neighbors and Willa Cather winters, and had a long chat with Gillian Welch at a pizza bar. Two summers ago he played on a barnstorming baseball team that toured rural Nebraska in an un-airconditioned 1977 Toyota Dolphin camper, a period during which he subsisted off of hot dogs, Snickers bars, and High Life He spent the past year in South Bend, where he divided his time between writing and playing bridge with his grandparents. His fictional interests include: wine snobs, savant children, high-energy particle physics, fertility cults, the undead, Young Republicans, football, phrenology, Bono, Bob Costas, crucifixion, 50s housewives, rock and roll, the Resurrection of the Dead, and the end of the world. He's glad to be here.

SABA RAZVI holds a BA in English from Creighton University and MA in English and Creative Writing from the University of Texas at Austin.She has received a James A. Michener Fellowship, and a frst place Fania Kruger fellowship, and a Virginia C. Middleton Fellowship. Her poetry has appeared in Diner, Karamu, Anthology, The Homestead Review, and, most recently, in Voiecs of Resistance: Muslim Women on War Faith and Sexuality. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California.

JOSIE SIGLER'S work has appeared in The Journal of American Poetry, Poet Lore, Hayden's Ferry Review, The Chattahoochee Review, Harpur Palate and others. She was a 2007 finalist for The Iowa Award in Fiction. She calls Mount Desert Island, in Maine, home, but part of her is undoubtedly stranded for life in any number of rustbelt towns surrounded by endless corn. She's attempted in her work, as Dorothy Allison says, to "Give some child, some thirteen-year-old, the hope of the remade life," to nourish the covenant of truth that's sustained her thus far.

RYAN SHOEMAKER graduated with a BA and MA in English from Brigham Young University, and currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Jennifer, and two children, Kieran and Haven. His short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in the MacGuffin, Wanderings, and Dialogue. Much of his fiction deals with the inner-city as a kind of frontier where people of diverse backgrounds and ethnicities meet, often violently, and see each other for the first time. Presently, he is a first year Ph.D. student in the University of Southern California's Literature and Creative Writing program.

The Return of The Loudest Voice

2007-11-08T15:10:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, November 25th wake yourself from your tryptophan coma and join us at the Mountain Bar for the triumphant return of The Loudest Voice.

Trinie Dalton lives in Los Angeles. She is author of Wide Eyed (Akashic), A Unicorn Is Born (Abrams), and co-editor of Dear New Girl or Whatever Your Name Is (McSweeney's), an art book based on confiscated high school notes. As a journalist, she writes about music, art, and film. She has an MFA from Bennington Writing Seminars and teaches fiction writing at various colleges.

Katherine Karlin's fiction has appeared in North American Review, ZYZZYVA, Other Voices and elsewhere. She won a 2007 Pushcart Prize for her short story "Bye-Bye Larry." A PhD candidate in the Program for Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Southern
California, she has contributed over 60 theater reviews and arts features to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Los Angeles Daily News.

Jeff Solomon has an MFA from UC--Irvine and is a doctoral student in English and Gender Studies at the University of Southern California. His most recent publications include the short story "Best Friend" in Harrington Gay Men's Literary Quarterly and the article "Young, Effeminate, and Strange: Early Photographic Portraits of Truman Capote" in Studies in Gender and Sexuality.

See you there!

Summer Break

2007-07-09T18:22:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends,

This after a long absence: We're on break. The Loudest Voice returns in September. Look for updates in August.

--Bryan

Loudest Voice IV

2007-04-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

Thanks and credit for this poster go to Jared Purrington.

A Lollapolooza of Words

2007-04-23T06:51:00.000-07:00

So hi.

Things are coming together for the much talked about, highly anticipated Loudest Voice #4, which is on Tuesday, May 8th at the Mountain Bar in Chinatown (doors open at 8PM and it's FREE FREE FREE).

Aimee Bender (author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, An Invisible Sign of my Own, Willful Creatures) is our featured reader. She'll be taking the stage at 8:30PM.

Joining her are...

Andrew Allport
Jennifer Kwon Dobbs
John Fox
Nicky Schildkraut
Jeff Solomon

See you there.

Announcing...

2007-04-08T07:43:00.000-07:00

...the Loudest Voice #4 w/ Aimee Bender.

We're still working out all the details, but here's what we can tell you for sure. Aimee Bender, author-extraordinaire, will be joining us Tuesday, May 8 for the last Loudest Voice of the season; the last one before we go on glorious, glorious summer break.

We're at the Mountain Bar; doors will open at 7PM. Who's going to read with her? We're thinking, you are. Details to come.

Get Visual

2007-04-08T07:24:00.000-07:00

I know it's a long time coming, folks, but worth the wait.

Here are pictures from TLV#3. Thanks again to our readers, our listeners, and Amaranth for putting eye to shutter. If you'd like to see all of them visit here.

TLV3: Now With Prizes

2007-03-18T19:50:00.000-07:00

Last time: Cupcakes. Delicious cupcakes. You took them home in your stomachs.
This time: Prizes. Delicious, handcrafted, 100% unique prizes. You'll take them home in your hands.

Here's what you do:
1) Come to the next Loudest Voice reading at The Mountain Bar on Thursday, March 22nd at 7PM.
2) Give us $1 for 1 raffle ticket, or $5 for 6.
3) Put your name on said tickets.
4) When your name is called, walk out the dollar elevated by an evening of music, drink, poetry, and fiction, provided by Rick Lupert, Siel Ju, Stephan Clark, and the One Man Band, plus with an amazing prize in your hot little/big hand-sized hands.

Here's a sampling of what you could walk away with:

Letterpress and Gocco Cards by Amaranth Borsuk:

Hand-knitted iPod cozy by Marielle Henault:

Set of 3 prints from the Team Players series (#'s 197, 198, 199) by Blake Lemons:

Handmade plush owl by Vy Trinh and Blake Lemons, inspired by Team Players:

American Apparel t-shirts featuring the Loudest Voice logo:
...and more goodies that we're not going to tell you about.

TLV #3

2007-03-02T17:53:00.000-08:00

And To Tide You Over Until March 22nd...

2007-02-20T11:26:00.000-08:00

...check out what some of our readers from the previous, and upcoming, Loudest Voices have been up to:

You can find Andrew Allport's poetry in the anthology Best New Poet s.

Amaranth Borsuk, my comrade-in-arms, has new poetry over at The Drunken Boat.

Voices of Resistance: Muslim Women on War, Faith and Sexuality, which features work by our very own Saba Razvi has been getting some nice press (which we found out about courtesy of Saba's own website).

If you haven't bought the new Pushcart Prize Anthology, which is always a good read and which features Katherine Karlin, then we shake our heads and cluck our tongues at you.

Stephan Clark. Swink Magazine. A Literary Purge.

We've Missed You Too.

2007-02-20T11:04:00.000-08:00

We know that things have been quiet here at the Loudest Blog, and we'd like you to know that we're sorry. In fact, we'd like to make it up to you by announcing the next Loudest Voice reading: we're going to be bigger, better, and louder than ever before.

Here are the details:

Who: Rick Lupert
Siel Ju
Stephan Clark

When: Thursday, March 22nd. 7 PM.

Where: The Mountain Bar
473 Gin Ling Way
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Why: Because how can you say no to an evening of fantastic writers, musicians, artists, alcohol, and (though we're not promising cupcakes) surprises. Also, because we love you. And we'd cry if you weren't there.

Our Next Loudest Voice Reading Extravaganza: December 6th, 2006

2006-11-17T09:45:00.000-08:00

His Pictures Equal 84,000 Words

2006-10-31T08:40:00.000-08:00

Blake Lemons, close personal friend and Loudest Voice artistic contributor, has been busy making owls. 84 owls, in fact. And they've been getting much deserved attention. To see all of his owls, check out his website. And look for more of Blake's artwork to be debuted on December 6th at the next Loudest Voice reading.

The Loudest Voice #1: Video!

2006-10-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

Here's The Loudest Voice's own Saba Razvi reading her poetry at our September event. Thanks to Saba for posting this and to Amaranth sending me the link.

The Loudest Voice #2: 1 Month and Counting

2006-10-24T07:37:00.000-07:00

Mark your calendars and reset your clocks. The Loudest Voice will be returning on Wednesday December 6th at 8PM at the Mountain Bar. Featured readers are: multi-genre superstar CODY TODD and Pushcart Prize-winning author KATY KARLIN. Music will be provided by the sonorous and inimitable ANDREW ALLPORT.

Keep your eyes peeled to this site. Additional readers are TBA.