Writers' Open Mic: May

Event Description

Dying to share the first few lines of your slice-of-life novel set in the South End or your epic blank verse poem about T delays? Curious what other local creatives are working on?

Writers’ Open Mic is the home for works in progress from all literary genres. Prose, poetry, flash fiction, pages from your graphic novel, a haiku about Market Basket; whatever you’re working on, come and dazzle a live audience in a low-key, supportive atmosphere.

Connect with a literary community, have a drink or two, hear inspiring features from established and emerging writers, and be the first to know what’s new and next in Boston’s lit scene.

Doors open at 6:30 to sign up for one of the coveted slots to read. Readings start at 7pm, with features at 8pm.

Writers’ Open Mic is free to attend, 18+, and registration is requested. Alcohol will be for sale for 21+ attendees. WOM is brought to you by GrubStreet, Porter Square Books, and Mass Poetry.

Register via Eventbrite here!

Featured Readers:

Quintin Collins (he/him) is a writer, editor, and associate director of the Solstice Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program. His work appears in many print and online publications, such as Up the Staircase Quarterly, Superstition Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Solstice Literary Magazine, and others. Winner of a Pushcart Prize and the 2019 Atlantis Award from the Poet's Billow, Quintin's publishing accolades include multiple Best of the Net Nominations, and he was a finalist for the 2020 Redivider Beacon Street Prize.

Quintin's first full-length collection of poems, The Dandelion Speaks of Survival, which was a finalist for the 2020 Alice James Award and the 2021 Sheila Margaret Motton Book Prize, is available from Cherry Castle Publishing. His second collection of poems, Claim Tickets for Stolen People, selected by Marcus Jackson as winner of The Journal's 2020 Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize and Honor Book for the Black Caucus of the American Library Association’s 2023 Best Poetry Literary Award, is available from Ohio State University Press/Mad Creek Books.

Elizabeth Gonzalez James is a screenwriter and bestselling author of the novels, The Bullet Swallower and Mona at Sea, as well as the chapbook, Five Conversations About Peter Sellers. The Bullet Swallower was named a best book of 2024 by NPR and Esquire, was an honor-winner in the Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Book of Fiction by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award and shortlisted for Reading the West. Additionally, The Bullet Swallower was a Book of the Month Club pick, and was featured on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” as one of their spring book club picks. Elizabeth was featured on the MSNBC documentary “My Generation” representing the Millennials. She has taught fiction writing at GrubStreet, Pioneer Valley Writers Workshop, Story Studio, and elsewhere. Originally from South Texas, Elizabeth now lives with her family in Massachusetts.