Summer's Almost Over: August Reading Series Recap
A message from Krystal and Hope
Announcements:
The next virtual write-in will take place Wednesday at 1 PM. Reminder that August write-ins are open to ALL subscribers — Zoom link will be sent the morning of.
A small group of CCNY MFA students and alums are hosting a fundraising reading event at The Ripped Bodice bookstore to help raise money for an upstate writing retreat. It will be held on September 6 from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM, and all the info can be found here.
Even though the season doesn’t officially end until September 21, it’s around this time of year that New Yorkers get their last minute trips in. Especially before Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer, causing tourists to flee and city residents to fill the streets back up in anticipation of shorter days and cooler temperatures.
While August may be quiet, it didn’t stop us from filling the room with amazing nonfiction readers and lovers last week. We are incredibly grateful for the support this series keeps receiving month after month and so honored to have been able to host another bad-ass all-female lineup.
It was one of the best events yet (which will continue to be true for each passing month) with readings of lost languages, hustling hard, neon blow-up chairs and kinky BDSM relationships. No subject was off limits and it made for an incredibly powerful evening.
We also took our first stab at co-hosting, and we think it’s officially safe to say that two is better than one.
In Case You Missed It
Megan Broussard started off the night with so many laughs, reading from her memoir-in-progress about coming to terms with, and embracing, her Cajun heritage. She read about being in Quebec City for a five-week French immersion program as a beginning way to embrace her Cajun-ness, after spending so much time in her life trying to lose her accent. In a humorous-but-no-bullshit statement, she writes that Cajun is a people group, not a yummy spice.
Samantha Mann took the laughs up another notch with an essay about how important it was for her to have her first kiss back in seventh grade. She read about the movie Jawbreaker, a quintessential 90s movie that taught her how to approach her class crush. Trying on the personality of Jawbreaker’s seductive Courtney (played by Rose McGowan), she read about how she secured that first kiss. What stood out most from her reading other than the stunning writing and laugh-out-loud moments, were the many 90s references that had the audience nodding and reminiscing along with her.
Taking a much more serious approach, Krystal read an excerpt from her memoir-in-progress about her father coming back into her life when she was 9 and losing him again in a car accident after just a few short years together. She read about the search for meaning in his death, and most importantly, coming to terms with the kind of man he really was. There was talk about drug addiction and the coroner’s report, but ultimately what it means to love and miss a complicated man.
After a short break and some mingling in the Oak Cellar Room, Aly Tadros stepped up to the mic. Other than winning the fashion part of the evening in her gorgeous royal blue jumpsuit, she also read from her memoir-in-progress about kink, power, and self-possession. Her reading focused on the beginning stages of a BDSM relationship with a man she met on OKCupid—in an attempt to fix her life after becoming sober. She described the night of their first meeting, questioning what it was that made some people desire to be submissive and be “debased” by another human.
Nicole Treska kept the night going by reading a chapter from her debut memoir Wonderland, which was released just last month. She read a section about her dying romantic relationship with “the Turk” amidst landlord intimidation in her building. Her memoir explores landlord-tenant relationships in NYC and her constant need to hustle in order to make her ever-increasing rent. She read about her father, and childhood flashbacks to his incarceration, always with such purpose and containment.
Anya Yurchyshyn finished the night strong with a couple excerpts from her memoir My Dead Parents. She read a portion about when she learned (at age 16) that her father had passed away and her sister had to identify the body, relaying the information to Anya and their mother. Years later, when her mother also died, Anya began cleaning out her mother’s home. After believing all her life that her parents never actually loved each other, she stumbled upon letters sent and received between them that might prove otherwise.
Each and every one of our readers brought so much heart to the room with their beautiful words. We are so grateful to all of them for making the night so magical, and we can’t wait to do it again next month with a new set of readers.
Next month’s event has been shifted to Monday, September 9 at 7:30 PM because of the first presidential debate between Harris and Trump. Even though Krystal swore she would never sway from the second Tuesday of the month again, we both want to watch the debate, and we bet you do too.
We hope you’ll join us on a Monday night for another special evening of nonfiction. We are still finalizing the lineup and will announce it soon—so stay tuned for that!
