December 11: Rob Ackerman and Tom Gavin

Rob Ackerman (Playwright) wrote Tabletop (2001 Drama Desk Award Winner for Best Ensemble Performance) and Disconnect (produced in 2005 by The Working Theater at Classic Stage Company). His first play, Origin of the Species, was made into an award-winning feature film starring Amanda Peet. Rob and his wife, author Carol Weston, live on the Upper West side with their daughters Emme and Lizzi and a cat named Mike.

Thomas Gavin is the author of three novels. Breathing Water, which won the Lillian Fairchild Award; The Last Film of Emile Vico; and Kingkill, named a Notable Book by the American Library Association and an “Editor’s Choice” by Time Magazine. His essays have appeared in The Georgia Review, The Writer’s Chronicle, Best American Essays, and other publications, and have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. An excerpt from his novel in progress, Bridge of Lost Boys, appeared in Icarus: New Writing from Around the World. An emeritus professor of English at The University of Rochester, Gavin has taught at Middlebury College and Delta College, and at a number of writing seminars. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.

Tuesday, November 13: Judith Baumel and Martha Cooley

ORDINARY EVENING READING SERIES
WELCOMES JUDITH BAUMEL AND MARTHA COOLEY
Tuesday, November 13, 7-8pm


The Anchor Bar's Mermaid Room (downstairs)
272 College Street at Chapel, (203) 865-1512

“About that head scarf I saw fluttering brightly
in a bright room across the distance
of corridors as if it were a movie or a strong
dream.. .”

writes poet Judith Baumel, a poet, critic and translator. She is Associate Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program at Adelphi University. A former director of the Poetry Society of America, her books of poetry are The Weight of Numbers for which she won the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets, and Now. Her poetry, translations and essays have been published in Poetry, The Yale Review, The New York Times, and The New Yorker.

Martha Cooley’s most recent novel begins, “Think of me as real. . .” She’s the author of The Archivist, a national bestseller, and Thirty-Three Swoons (both published by Little, Brown). Her short fiction and essays have appeared in A Public Space, AGNI, Washington Square, and elsewhere. She teaches fiction in the Bennington Writing Seminars and is a member of the English Department at Adelphi University. Though she’s pretty amazing, we think of her as real.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS
This season's lineup offers an eclectic mix of poetry, fiction, non-fiction and drama from local and further-flung writers. The final reading of the Fall season, on Tuesday, December 11, will present novelist Tom Gavin and playwright Robert Ackerman. For biographies, links to work, and other information, visit http://ordinaryevening.blogspot.com/.

ABOUT THE ORDINARY EVENING SERIES
Started in spring 2005, the Ordinary Evening Reading Series features both emerging and established writers in a monthly reading at the Anchor Bar Mermaid Room, downstairs. Borrowing its name from the poem "An Ordinary Evening in New Haven" by Wallace Stevens, the series aims to bring writers and audiences together in a no-fuss, informal environment to enjoy a little storytelling on a work-night. Readings are always on a Tuesday at 7pm, free of charge, both drinkers and teetotalers welcome.

The Ordinary Evening Reading Series Schedule for Fall 2007

The Ordinary Evening Reading Series was created to bring emerging and established poets and writers to New Haven, and to enrich the already robust artistic, cultural, and literary scene in the Elm City. The readings always take place on a Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. in the Anchor Bar’s Mermaid Room, downstairs at 272 College Street in New Haven. For now, you’ll have to settle for one reading a month. Seating is limited so get there early! If you have a question about the reading series, please email
curator.ordinaryevening @gmail.com

If you’d like to receive announcements about upcoming readings, please email
news.ordinaryevening@gmail.com

Here’s the reading schedule through December 2007. Click on the links to learn more about the readers and visit this site frequently for updates and news:

September 18 Marilyn Nelson and Sarah Pemberton Strong
October 16 Laura M. MacDonald and Amy Bloom
November 13 Judith Baumel and Martha Cooley
December 11 Robert Ackerman and Tom Gavin.

November 13: Judith Baumel and Martha Cooley

Judith Baumel is a poet, critic and translator. She is Associate Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program at Adelphi University. A former director of the Poetry Society of America, her books of poetry are The Weight of Numbers for which she won the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets, and Now. Her poetry, translations and essays have been published in Poetry, The Yale Review, The New York Times, and The New Yorker.

Martha Cooley is the author of The Archivist, a national bestseller, and Thirty-Three Swoons (both published by Little, Brown). Her short fiction and essays have appeared in A Public Space, AGNI, Washington Square, and elsewhere. She teaches fiction in the Bennington Writing Seminars and is a member of the English Department at Adelphi University.

October 16: Laura M. Macdonald and Amy Bloom

Laura M. Macdonald's most recent book, Curse of the Narrows, won the 2005 Dartmouth Book Award and was a finalist for the 2006 Charles Taylor Prize for Non-Fiction, the Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Prize, and the John W. Dafoe Prize. It was also featured as Barnes and Noble New Voices selection. She is the co-author of one novel. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she now lives in New York. Her website is Laura M. Macdonald.com.

Amy Bloom is the author of two novels, two collections of short stories, and a book of essays. She's been nominated for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories, Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, and numerous anthologies here and abroad. She has written for the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, Slate, and Salon, among many other publications, and has won a National Magazine Award. She lives in Connecticut and teaches at Yale University.

September 18: Marilyn Nelson and Sarah Pemberton Strong

The Fall season of the Ordinary Evening Reading Series begins with a pair of exciting writers: former Connecticut poet laureate Marilyn Nelson and novelist and poet Sarah Pemberton Strong.

Poet Marilyn Nelson is the author or translator of twelve books and three chapbooks. Her books have won many honors, including three finalist honors for the National Book Award, the Poets' Prize, the Boston Globe/Hornbook Award, the Flora Stieglitz Straus Award, one Newbery and two Coretta Scott King honors, finalist honors for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, the American Scandinavian Society Translation Prize, and the Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry. Nelson is a professor emeritus of English at the University of Connecticut; founder and director of Soul Mountain Retreat, a small writers’ colony; and the Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut from 2001 through 2006.

Sarah Pemberton Strong is the author of a novel, Burning the Sea, which was on the Boston Globe Top 10 bestseller list in 2002. Her poetry has appeared in The Southern Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Cream City Review, Atlanta Review, The Sun and elsewhere. She teaches poetry workshops at Arts and Literature Lab in New Haven and is currently completing her second novel, The Fainting Room. Her website is www.sarahpembertonstrong.com.

In Memoriam, Liam Rector, Poet, Educator, and Friend

The Ordinary Evening Reading Series sadly notes the passing of Liam Rector, poet and educator, on August 15. Liam published three volumes of poetry: The Sorrow of Architecture (Dragon Gate, 1984); American Prodigal (Story Line, 1994); and The Executive Director of the Fallen World (University of Chicago, 2006), in addition to editing The Day I Was Older: The Poetry of Donald Hall and co-editing with Tree Swenson, On the Poetry of Frank Bidart: Fastening the Voice to the Page. Along with teaching at Columbia University, the New School University, Emerson College and elsewhere, he founded the Bennington College Writing Seminars program in 1994 and served as its executive director until the time of his death. He touched thousands of lives through his teaching and writing and will be sorely missed.

The Anchor Bar & Restaurant

This is a review of the Anchor from the local bar & restaurant guide The Menu (http://www.newhavenmenu.com/):

The dive bar to end all dive bars, equally beloved by locals and students for its time-frozen charm

Traditional American cuisine
Located near the Green in New Haven’s Theatre District
$11 average price for a meal and drink

Overall rating: 6.5/10
Food: 5.7/10
Atmosphere: 9.0/10
Attitude: 4.0/10
Value: 7.0/10

Full bar
No credit cards accepted

For a real drink at a real bar, any night you please, the Anchor is the obvious choice—we might say the only choice. There may be no better-preserved, no more self-consciously hip postwar watering hole in New Haven. And no local bar is such a perennial and reliable crowd-pleaser. In the very heart of town, this is the beloved favorite of generations of Taft residents, law and grad students, and just about everyone else in New Haven with a taste for kitsch, cheap beer, a wink, and a smile. The Anchor serves passable, well-priced comfort food at lunchtime: burgers and traditional American classics like liver, bacon, and onions (yeah!). But the Anchor comes into its own during the post-school hours, as the crowd slowly starts to assemble.
     Fast-forward seven hours. It’s packed. The last shift of Roomba and Union League kitchen staff sidles up to the bar. Regulars have commandeered their usual tables, and the jukebox is stacked with classics. Grad students squirm in their plastic booths, sitting knee to knee in observance of some irrational fire code prohibiting more comfortable configurations. Gone, sadly, are the $1.75 bottles of Schaefer’s on Mondays; they’ve been replaced by cans of Rheingold, another nostalgic American beer. “How’s the Rheingold?” we asked our server one day. “Terrible,” he answered. So of course we had to order one. Right he was—it tasted like sweetened dishwashing detergent.
     The bartenders turn into psychotic last last-call drill sergeants at the untimely hour of 12:45. (Anchor closes a little early. Always. Even the clock on the wall is fast.) As regulars whine and guzzle while intimidated novices file out obediently, the jukebox calmly spins its classic tunes. Life is as it should be at the Anchor, and we only wish that the soundtrack could follow us home.

Time for Summer Break, But Come Back in September!

The Ordinary Evening Reading Series will resume on September 18th at 7 PM in the Anchor Bar's Mermaid Room (272 College St., New Haven) with poets Marilyn Nelson and Liam Rector. Keep checking this site for additional information on these and our other fall readers, which include non-fiction writer Laura Macdonald, and novelists Amy Bloom, Judy Baumel, Martha Cooley, and Tom Gavin, among others.

Have a wonderful summer with many blissful ordinary evenings spent reading!

May 15: Lloyd Schwartz and Elizabeth Alexander

May 15th brings mayflowers and a pair of poets to the Ordinary Evening Reading Series, at 7PM in the Anchor Bar's Mermaid Room at 272 College Street in New Haven. Lloyd Schwarz, a poet, professor, music critic, and Elizabeth Bishop expert, will be reading with Elizabeth Alexander, Yale professor, poet, and recent winner of the inaugural Jackson Poetry Prize.

Lloyd Schwartz is the author of three books of poems, most recently Cairo Traffic. He won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism for his columns about classical music and dance in the Boston Phoenix and is also a regular commentator about classical music for NPR’s Fresh Air. He has written extensively about Elizabeth Bishop and is currently co-editing her collected works for the Library of America. Dr. Schwartz lives in Somerville, Massachusetts and is Frederick S. Troy Professor of English at The University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Elizabeth Alexander is a poet, essayist, playwright, and teacher. She is the author of four books of poems, American Sublime (Graywolf Press, 2005), which was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize; The Venus Hottentot (Graywolf Press, reissued 2004); Antebellum Dream Book (Graywolf Press, 2001); and Body of Life (Tia Chucha, 1997). She is also a scholar of African-American literature and culture and recently published a collection of essays, The Black Interior (Graywolf Press, 2003). She has read her work across the U.S. and in Europe, the Caribbean, and South America, and her poetry, short stories, and critical prose have been published in dozens of periodicals and anthologies. A professor at Yale University , Dr. Alexander lives in New Haven, Connecticut and also serves on the faculty of Cave Canem Poetry Workshop in the summer.

May 1: "Your Favorite Poem" Night

In the spirit that “Every Month is Poetry Month”, we invite you to gather a favorite poem and read aloud with us on Tuesday, May 1, 7PM. Old or new, famous or obscure, stuff you’ve written yourself – we welcome all comers. All we ask is that you limit your contribution to one poem that is less than five minutes long, so that everyone gets a chance to read. See you on May Day!

April 17: Novelists Chandra Prasad and Sheila Kohler Read in the Ordinary Evening Series

On Tuesday, April 17th, The Ordinary Evening Reading Series proudly presents two fiction writers, New Haven native Chandra Prasad and O. Henry-award winning novelist Sheila Kohler. As always, the reading will start at 7 PM in the Mermaid Room, downstairs at the Anchor Bar, 272 College St. in New Haven.

Chandra Prasad's writing explores themes of identity and belonging. Inspired by lore and legend, her book Death of a Circus is a dark tale that centers around a young man who dreams of making a name for himself as a high-wire walker. Tom Perrotta says it is “narrated with Dickensian verve, a keen eye for historical detail, and lots of heart.” Prasad is the editor of—and a contributor to—Mixed: An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience (W.W. Norton), which features original work by Danzy Senna and Ruth Ozeki, among others. She is also the author of Outwitting the Job Market as well as dozens of articles on diversity and the workplace. Her novel On Borrowed Wings, about a girl who attends Yale University in the 1930s in the guise of a boy, will be published by Atria (Simon & Schuster) in June. Chandra lives in Connecticut with her husband, son, and an iguana named Green Bean.

Sheila Kohler has just published Bluebird or the Invention of Happiness (Other Press, April 2007), an account of an 18th century French noblewoman who left Revolutionary France and became a successful dairy farmer in Massachusetts. She is the author of five other novels: The Perfect Place,(Knopf,1989) The House on R Street, (Knopf, 1994) Cracks (Zoland,1999) Children of Pithiviers, (Zoland, June, 2001) and Crossways(The Ontario Review Press, October 2004), and three collections of short stories: Miracles in America,(Knopf, 1990) One Girl (Helicon Nine, 1999) and Stories from Another World (2003, Ontario Review Press).

Kohler has been awarded the O.Henry, (1988), the Open Voice Award(1991), The Willa Cather Prize for One Girl(1998), the Smart Family Foundation prize (October, 2000) and the Antioch Review Prize, (2004). She was a fellow at the Cullman Center at the New York Public Library in 2003/4 and teaches at Bennington and Brooklyn College.

Sandi Kahn Shelton and Joyce Peseroff Read on March 27th

The Ordinary Evening Reading Series welcomes novelist/humorist Sandi Kahn Shelton and poet Joyce Peseroff to the Anchor Bar on Tuesday, March 27th at 7 PM.

Sandi Kahn Shelton's second novel, A Piece of Normal, has just appeared in paperback. Sandi, a transplant to the New Haven area, always meant to move back to California but instead discovered she could live without the Pacific Ocean much more easily than she could do without clam apizza, snow days, and all the writers who live in this little 19-square mile area. Although by the age of five, she envisioned a smooth-running literary career for herself after she sold a story to her neighbors for 20 cents (the cost of a banana popsicle), she's discovered since then that the writing life, while mostly fun, isn't just about acquiring frozen desserts. She is the author of three non-fiction humor books about parenting--books that boast of offering absolutely NO viable parenting advice except "just try to make it from day to day." A feature writer and former humor columnist for the New Haven Register, she's the author of two novels, What Comes After Crazy and A Piece of Normal, and is currently at work on a third. She also maintains a blog at her website, www.sandishelton.com.

Joyce Peseroff's four books of poems are The Hardness Scale, A Dog in the Lifeboat, Mortal Education, and Eastern Mountain Time (Carnegie Mellon University Press). She is the editor of The Ploughshares Poetry Reader, Robert Bly: When Sleepers Awake, and, most recently, Simply Lasting: Writers on Jane Kenyon. Recent poems and reviews appear in Margie, Memorious, Ploughshares, Salamander, Slate, and The Women's Review of Books. She has received grants for her poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, as well as a Pushcart Prize. She is Director of Creative Writing and the new MFA Program at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

The Ordinary Evening Reading Series Spring Season

The Ordinary Evening Reading Series was created to bring emerging and established poets and writers to New Haven, and to enrich the already robust artistic, cultural, and literary scene in the Elm City. The readings always take place on a Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. in the Anchor Bar’s Mermaid Room. For now, you’ll have to settle for one reading a month. Seating is limited so get there early! If you have a question about the reading series, please email
curator.ordinaryevening@gmail.com If you’d like to receive announcements about upcoming readings, please email
news.ordinaryevening@gmail.com Here’s the reading schedule through May 2007. Click on the links to learn more about the readers and visit this site frequently for updates and news:

January 23 April Bernard and Roya Hakakian
February 27 Fred Dillen and Deirdre Bair
March 27 Sandi Shelton and Joyce Peseroff
April 17 Chandra Prasad and Sheila Kohler
May 15 Elizabeth Alexander and Lloyd Schwartz.

Fred Dillen and Deirdre Bair to Read on February 27

On Tuesday, February 27th, novelist Frederick Dillen and biographer/non-fiction writer Deirdre Bair will read as part of the Ordinary Evening Reading Series.

Frederick G. Dillen is the author of two novels, Hero-which was named the best first novel of its year by the Dictionary of Literary Biography-and Fool. A new novel has been optioned in manuscript by an independent film producer. Fred has won an O.Henry Award and has taught at Harvard and Emerson College. He lives in Cambridge with the playwright and performer Leslie Harrell Dillen. They have two grown daughters and a heartbreakingly old yellow dog with large ears.

Deirdre Bair’s most recent book, Calling it Quits: Late-Life Divorce and Starting Over, has just been published by Random House. She is also the author of four biographies: Samuel Beckett (winner of the National Book Award); Simone de Beauvoir (NY Times "Best Books of the Year"; finalist: Los Angeles Times Book Prize); Anaïs Nin (NY Times "Notable Books of the Year," BBC Arts 4 documentary); and Jung: A Biography (NY Times “Notable Books of the Year,” Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, winner of the NAAP Gradiva Award for Best Biography of the Year).

Deirdre has been a literary journalist and tenured university professor with a specialty in comparative literature and culture, and has held fellowships and grants from many prestigious organizations, including the Rockefeller and Guggenheim Foundations. She has also been a visiting professor and writer in residence all over the world, and most recently, at Bennington College. She divides her time between New York and New Haven, Connecticut.

The Ordinary Evening Reading Series Introduces January Readers: April Bernard and Roya Hakakian

The Ordinary Evening Reading Series begins its 2007 season with poet April Bernard and novelist Roya Hakakian, appearing on January 23 at 7 PM in The Anchor Bar's Mermaid Room. Check this site frequently for announcements of the balance of our season, which will feature playwrights, poets, and novelists, including novelist Fred Dillen and poet Lloyd Schwartz.
April Bernard is a poet, novelist, and essayist whose most recent collection of poems is Swan Electric. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Agni, The Southwest Review, and many other magazines. She has received the Walt Whitman Prize from the Academy of American Poets, a Sidney Harmon Fellowship, and an award in poetry from the Guggenheim Foundation. April Bernard teaches literature and writing at Bennington College in Vermont. She will read from her forthcoming collection, In a Stolen Boat.

Roya Hakakian’s memoir, Journey from the Land of No– about a girlhood in revolutionary Iran– recently won the Connecticut Book Award; The Washington Post called it a “moving narrative” that “swings from funny to sad.” She is a former associate producer at CBS’s 60 Minutes and a documentary filmmaker, as well as the author of two acclaimed volumes of poetry in Persian and a contributor to National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.