TPT #3
October 8, 2024
at
The Banshee (upstairs), 934 Dorchester Ave, Boston, MA 02125
The third time is indeed the charm! A brief story: once upon a time in the “before times,” The Banshee was the designated watering-hole for after-workshop commiserations and celebrations, and this is back on the mind now that all the kiddos have flooded our trains and streets and bars. The point is that this will be the first “in-season” Two Page Tuesday, and we are, as ever, very exited to see what our friends in Boston have been cooking up.
As ever, socializing is strongly encouraged before and after the reading.
Readers (subject to change): Ali Lanier, Hope Jordan, Mary Coons, Sabina Lindsey, Shannon Kafka, TK
About
Two Page Tuesday is a prose and poetry reading series in Boston for local readers that grew out of a “literary folks” bar night that grew out of a very post-pandemic desire to build some kind of writing community. The reading piece of it came about when we thought, “Hey, it’d be fun to hear what folks are working on.”
The idea is to host a social night under the guise of a prose and poetry reading. We’ll start the reading late, whenever all the readers arrive and whenever we feel like starting. Until that point, we expect and encourage the folks in attendance to eat, drink, and be merry. During the reading, we expect respectful oos and ahhs and lots of clapping and encouragement. After the reading, we expect more merriment, eating, drinking, whatever. We like readings, and we also know that calling it a reading will get us on all the event lists and things (whereas saying “hey, we’re meeting at a bar!” does not, and not everybody likes bars anyway).
The constraint for readers is roughly as follows:
- The reading limit is two pages, double spaced, 12 point Times New Roman or the equivalent. Poets reading one page single spaced at 12 points is fine. This is a very serious requirement!
- Bonus points if you can think of a funny way to end your reading mid-sentence (complete thoughts are also, of course, perfectly fine).
- It’s got to be new work, by which we mean: unpublished, not read publicly before. Shown to beta readers is fine.
- Readers should be living in Boston, or within I-95, or in the general area, but we can and will be flexible about this.
The motivating factor of its “two-page”edness is that it being a short reading is key. Long readings are too long and short readings are nice, and the secondary motivation behind the constraint is to encourage folks to show new work, in progress work, shit they’d otherwise maybe not think “polished” enough to share. The idea to create a space to hear what our local Boston poets and writers are writing now, not what they’d hastily shoved into some portfolio in a writing workshop six years ago.
If you’re interested in reading, come find Danny at one of the readings. If you’re interested in joining the alternating-month bar nights, come find Danny about that as well. Someday we’ll have a mailing list. We probably won’t get social media, though. In the meantime, just come find Danny.
Past Events
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August 13, 2024 at The Banshee
Readers: Caitlin Ghegan, Krisela Karaja, Logan Buckley, Megan Waring, Nick Roberts, Nick Snow
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June 4, 2024 at The Banshee
Readers: Alicia Method, Cardinal Belgrave Jr., Jonny Lipshin, Lisa Allen, Megan Waring, Nick Roberts, Nicole-Anne Bales Keyton