If you hated summer camp, or even if you loved it, you might enjoy a summer camp-themed reading involving some young up-and-coming authors.Hosted by 23-year-old Ned Vizzini, who wrote the new and critically acclaimed young-adult novel Be More Chill, the reading will include Hoboken author Jeff Somers (Lifers, The Freaks are Winning), Hudson Reporter newspaper editor Caren Lissner (Carrie Pilby, Starting from Square Two), and young writer and independent publisher Jackie Corley (www.wordriot.org), who lives in Monmouth County.
“I’m hoping it will be fun and kind of funny,” Lissner says. “It’s a coincidence that all three of the readers live in New Jersey. What’s also exciting is that Jackie Corley and Ned Vizzini are two really energetic young authors whose careers will be fun to watch.”
Jeff Somers of Hoboken writes a ‘zine called the Inner Swine (www.innerswine.com) which explores other people’s foibles and his own. His first novel, Lifers, was published in 1999 and received a positive capsule review in the New York Times Book Review. The Freaks are Winning is a published collection of writing from the Inner Swine. Somers is in his early 30s.
Jackie Corley was born in 1982. She developed Word Riot (www.wordriot.org), a monthly online literary magazine dedicated to the forceful voices of up-and-coming writers and poets, in March 2002 with the help of Paula Anderson. Word Riot Press, an independent publishing house, evolved out of the magazine in January 2003. Her writing has appeared at SerialText and is forthcoming in Little Engines.
Caren Lissner’s humorous novels, Carrie Pilby (about a confused post-collegiate female genius) and Starting from Square Two, were published last June and this past March respectively. She is now working on a third book that she says is different from the first two. She also edits the Hudson Reporter family of newspapers, which includes the one you are reading. You can find out more at www.carenlissner.com.
Ned Vizzini (www.nedvizzini.com), is the host of the Barbes reading series. His novel, Be More Chill, was just released and is being made into a movie by the American Pie folks. The novel concerns a dorky high school kid who takes a pill that tells him what to say and how to act so that he can become “cool.” It’s being marketed to adults and teens alike.
All of the books mentioned above can be found on amazon.com and bn.com.
The free reading will take place Tuesday, June 15, at 7 p.m. at Barbes in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The address is 376 Ninth St. (at Sixth Avenue). Take the F train to Seventh Avenue in Brooklyn and walk down slope for a block.
For more information, check out www.nedvizzini.com or e-mail Lissner via her website.
Dear Mom, I hate camp! Local writers to do offbeat reading hosted by teen author Ned Vizzini
