Empty Bed Blues and other stories
by Folio Annual Fiction prize winner Kate Kaplan on Sunday, February 8, 2015
“…a night of vibrant, living art.” Forth Magazine
Hey North Hollywood, did you know that The New Short Fiction Series is L.A.’s longest running spoken word series? It just so happens that it’s presented at The Federal Bar every second Sunday of the month in cooperation with Barnes & Noble, and is a recognized standout in the Southland’s artistic landscape. Each performance features carefully selected excerpts from new works of short fiction by a West Coast writer. The New Short Fiction Series is directly responsible for placing six newly released books on the Los Angeles Times’ bestseller list, and has been the “jump off” for many collections and novels from unpublished stories featured in the series. Spoken word artist Sally Shore hosts and produces this live, monthly program, performing with a rotating guest cast of some of L.A.’s most talented working actors.
“It’s a spoken word series and it’s also L.A.’s only live literary magazine,…It’s not really a reading, but more of a hybrid of live interpretation and the written word. It’s literary performance.” Variety
Next up at The New Short Fiction Series is the reading of Empty Bed Blues and other stories by Folio Annual Fiction Prize winner Kate Kaplan. The stories are about love, lust and desire, with all the weirdness and loss and complications – and pleasure! – that goes with them. Love, lust, desire…and cooking.
The performance stars spoken word artist Sally Shore, with guest cast Jessie Holcomb (Glee, Its You Not Me), Jessica Hopper (The Mentalist) and Buckley Sampson (Breaking & Entering).
WHEN: Sunday, February 8, 2015 Performances begin at 7:00 pm, doors open 6 pm.
WHERE: The Federal Bar 5303 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood 91601.
TICKETS: Admission is $12 with advance purchase
$15 same day cash only at the door, advance purchase tickets recommended. www.newshortfictionseries.com or call 866-811-4111.
Kate Kaplan’s stories have appeared in Folio, Cream City Review, Santa Monica Review, Writers’ Forum and was listed as one of the 100 distinguished stories of the year in The Best American Short Stories of 1993. She has been a Bread Loaf Scholar and Swanee Writers’ Conference scholar. Kaplan, who lives in Los Angeles, is also a practicing attorney.
“Writing is so internal and you never get to watch your readers when they’re reading your work, but at the New Short Fiction readings it’s out loud, shared, with food and drink – with the added the benefit of what actors bring, which is tremendous. (Can’t wait to hear the actors read my work.) It’s real storytelling — a great mashup of two branches of art, plus you can have a drink. Nothing better.” – Author Kate Kaplan
“Kate Kaplan’s specialty– in short stories, in vignettes, even in her poems– is the witty and insightful depiction of people, of types and trends in today’s society. And she’s quick. She can skewer manners and morality in a brief cocktail chat and its aftermath. She can summarize a life with a few glimpsed memories, or several related lives in the fate of some family possessions. She might even hand us a mystery, but faintly, so pay attention.” Susan Diamond
“Kate Kaplan knows her way around courtrooms and barrooms and bedrooms and kitchens, and writes about them all with wit, insight, grace and clarity. I once cooked a celebratory dinner for friends, roast leg of lamb and watercress soup, completely based on the meal that Kate served in her story…That fictional dinner she created was so evocative that I not only could taste it, I craved it. To this day, I can’t recall which tasted better, the actual or the imagined dinner. Both linger in my memory.” Lou Mathews
“In the summer of 2011 when we realized that the series needed a new home for 2012, I wanted a venue that was more than a performance space – it needed to be a place that my audience could “Eat, Drink and Be Literate.” The New Short Fiction Series originated 19 years ago in the NoHo Arts District at The Actors Workout Studio, and we performed our 2001 and 2002 season at The Historic Lankershim Arts Center, so the NoHo Arts District had been a fruitful home to the series in the past. The Federal Bar, at the time recently, opened was suggested to me and when I walked in the door to meet Ed Levy, the General Manager, I knew that this was the place. It’s been a great fit for both the series and The Federal Bar. 2015 is our 3rd year there and my audience loves the environment, the food and drink, and the NoHo Arts District. The most common comment I get is “This is like a New York neighborhood – you don’t see this kind of combination of entertainment and dining on the Westside.” We are very happy and proud to present our 19th at The Federal Bar and we hope that folks will “Eat, Drink and Be Literate” with us when we present Kate Kaplan’s modern romance with a twist stories on February 8.” – Sally Shore host and producer of The New Short Fiction Series
The New Short Fiction Series is a project of the Pasadena Arts Council’s EMERGE Fiscal Sponsorship Program.
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