Readings! Live music! Antics! Beer!
The Writer’s Center LIVE! is a celebration of literature that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Attendees are treated to 5 exceptional readings, plus a generous serving of tomfoolery. Featuring acclaimed writers Brandon Blue, Jillian Danback-McGhan, Chet’la Sebree, Michael B. Tager, and Malik Thompson. Hosted by Amy Freeman and Emily Holland, with music by Zach Powers. Book sales provided by People’s Book.
FREE and open to the public (RSVP below). Open bar for the 21+ crowd. Donations appreciated.
Brandon Blue is a black, queer poet, educator and MFA candidate at Arizona State University from the D(M)V. He is an assistant editor for Storm Cellar Magazine and his work has or will appear in Barzakh, the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival Poetry Anthology, [PANK], and more. His work is also featured in the Capital Pride Poem-a-Day event. His work has received the support of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing. His chapbook, Snap.Shot, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Pres
Jillian Danback-McGhan is an author and Navy veteran. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Military Experience & the Arts, storySouth, Line of Advance, The Wrath-Bearing Tree, the anthology Our Best War Stories (Middle West Press, 2022), and elsewhere. Jillian is the recipient of the 2020 Col. Darron L. Wright Memorial Writing Award and is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, George Mason University, and Georgetown University. She lives in Annapolis, MD with her family. Her debut story collection, Midwatch, was published in February.
Chet’la Sebree is the author of Field Study (FSG Originals, June 2021), winner of the 2020 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. She is also the author of Mistress, selected by Cathy Park Hong as the winner of the 2018 New Issues Poetry Prize and nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work-Poetry (2020). She is currently working on her debut essay collection about her relationship to home, heritage, and belonging through domestic and international travel; it’s forthcoming from The Dial Press in 2025. She is an assistant professor of English at George Washington University.
Michael B. Tager is the Managing Editor of Mason Jar Press and an occasional writer of poetry and prose. He’s the author of Pop Culture Poetry: The Definitive Edition (Akinoga Press, ’24). He prefers not to end his sentences on an infinitive, but only because it’s a challenge, not because he thinks it’s a good rule (it isn’t).
Malik Thompson is a Black queer man from Washington DC. His work is featured, or forthcoming, in The Cincinnati Review, Denver Quarterly Review, Sundog Lit, Diode, MQR Mixtape, Oroboro, Poet Lore, and other places. He has received support from Lambda Literary, Obsidian Foundation, Brooklyn Poets, Cave Canem, and other organizations. He can be found on Instagram via the handle @latesummer.
If you need an accommodation for this event, please contact us at access@writer.org. We will attempt to fulfill all requests, but advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility services.