Scrappy Reading Series

What does scrappy mean to you?

Five emerging and established writers will answer this question at this month’s edition of the Scrappy Reading Series, supported by the Red Hook Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. Join us at Compère Collective as these writers share how they interpret "scrappy," and how they embody this in their writing lives, personal lives, love lives, and any other type of life they are living.

Also enjoy the current exhibit, Queer Clouds, featuring the works of designer-artists Will Eatough and Will Fryer. Through cyanotypes, sculptures, prints, drawings, and video, the show explores the connection between the ephemeral nature of clouds and the queer experience.

Inspired by the master's series course, Scrappy: How To Build an Alternative Literary Life (offered by Off Assignment and led by author Chloé Caldwell), Brooklyn writer Farah Faye began this series to bring together published and unpublished writers to explore what it means to be scrappy.

Admission is free, scrappiness required. Drinks and snacks will be served!

Space is limited - register here to attend!

 

READINGS BY:

Lena Valencia is the author of the short story collection Mystery Lights (Tin House Books /Dead Ink Books), which was longlisted for the Story Prize, named a Best Short Story Collection of 2024 by Electric Literature, and a Best Horror Book of 2024 by Esquire. Her fiction has appeared in BOMB, The Baffler, Electric Literature, Ninth Letter, Epiphany, the anthology Tiny Nightmares, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a 2019 Elizabeth George Foundation grant and holds an MFA in fiction from The New School. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she is the managing editor and director of educational programming at One Story and the co-host of the reading series Ditmas Lit.

Tracy O'Neill is the author of the memoir Woman of Interest. Her novels include The Hopeful and Quotients. She is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree and a Civitella Ranieri Fellow, was long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and was awarded the Center for Fiction's Emerging Writers Fellowship. Her writing has appeared in Granta, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, the New Yorker, LitHub, BOMB, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The Believer, The Literarian, The Austin Chronicle, New World Writing, The Baffler, Narrative, 4Columns, Scoundrel Time, Guernica, Bookforum, Electric Literature, Grantland, Vice, The Guardian, VQR, The San Francisco Chronicle, and Catapult. She teaches at Vassar College.

Marisa Crawford is the author of the poetry collections Reversible, The Haunted House, and, most recently, DIARY. She is the editor of The Weird Sister Collection (Feminist Press, 2024), and co-editor, with Megan Milks, of We Are The Baby-Sitters Club: Essays & Artwork from Grown-Up Readers. She lives in New York.

Paula Bomer is the author of the novels Tante Eva and Nine Months and the story collections Inside Madeleine and Baby and Other Stories, as well as the essay collection Mystery and Mortality. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including New York Magazine, Los Angeles Review of Books, BOMB, Fiction, and The Mississippi Review.

Chelsea Fonden is a queer poet, facilitator, and teaching artist with work featured in magazines such as No, Dear; Yes, Poetry; Adult Groceries; and Breadcrumbs. Chelsea reads poetry submissions for The Los Angeles Review and co-hosts the Tadpole Reading Series in Bed-Stuy, where she lives with her dog, Holiday.

Farah Faye is the host of Scrappy Reading Series, and is an emerging writer living in Brooklyn, NY with her husband, Justin and her cat, Kitty. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Spalding University and is the Managing Editor for the Post-Mortem Newsletter by Emi Nietfeld. Her work has appeared in Shondaland, Business Insider, Medium, and Art Monster Magazine. You can find her on Instagram @whoisfarahfaye and @scrappyreadingseries.