March 15: Michael Alienikov and Daniel Swift

Michael Alenyikov’s first book, Ivan and Misha, was called “Highly Recommended” by the Library Journal, while Booklist praised its “sweetness, compassion, and great beauty.” Michael’s short stories have appeared in Canada’s Descant, The Georgia Review, the James White Review, New York Stories, and Modern Words. They have been anthologized in Best Gay Stories, 2008 and Tartts Four: Incisive Fiction from Emerging Writers. His essays have appeared in The Gay & Lesbian Review. A MacDowell Fellow, Michael was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2007. He has worked as a bookstore clerk, clinical psychologist, cab driver, and interactive media writer, and lives in San Francisco.

Bomber County, Daniel Swift’s first book, has been reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement and The Guardian, among others. The New York Times called the book, Daniel's account of his lost bomber pilot grandfather interspersed with the poetry of the World War II aviators, "a freewheeling exploration elegantly spiraling from the airborne Icarus to the husk of Cologne." Daniel teaches in the English department at Skidmore College, and his essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times Book Review, the Guardian, Bookforum, and the Nation. Born in the U.K. and educated at Oxford and Columbia, he lives in New York City.

The Ordinary Evening Reading Series Announces its Spring 2011 Season

The Ordinary Evening Reading Series starts its 2011 Spring Series on Tuesday January 18th -an ordinary evening -at 7PM in the Anchor Bar's Mermaid Room (272 College Street, New Haven). We're excited to welcome a diverse range of writers - and we hope to welcome you, too.

Our Spring line-up includes:

February 15: Edith Pearlman and Elizabeth Ziemska
March 15: Daniel Swift and Michael Alenyikov
RESCHEDULED April 5: Annie Murphy Paul and Carl Zimmer
April 26: Gail Mazur and Eleanor Lerman

If you wish to join our email list, send a note to news.ordinaryevening@gmail.com

We welcome drinkers and teetotallers alike for an evening of readings by writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Please join us for what the New Haven Independent called "one of those unofficial civic ventures that make New Haven such a vibrant place."