Halfway There: June 2016

The final reading of Halfway There's inaugural season featured poet James Capozzi, nonfiction writer Sarah Dohrmann, fiction writer Helen Phillips, and our very own co-founder and host, fiction writer Apryl Lee. As always, the crowd at the Red Eye Cafe was generous with their applause and their questions, but this time they were also generous with their wallets, shelling out for a special raffle, with prizes like Halfway There merch, past readers' books, and gift certificates to the cafe and to Watchung Booksellers. There are fewer photographs than usual because, with Apryl reading, there were half the cameras snapping, but we wouldn't have had it any other way. It was a beautiful literary night to cap off a season that made us very proud! 

Halfway There: December 2015

We were thrilled to host readers Tobias Carroll, Claudia Cortese, Hillary Frank and Naomi J. Williams at the Red Eye Cafe on December 14th. All either New Jersey-natives or current New Jersey residents, they shared short fiction, poetic essays, nonfiction and novel excerpts with an appreciative, completely packed house. Watchung Booksellers was on hand to sell copies of Naomi J. Williams's debut novel Landfalls and Hillary Frank's young adult novel I Can't Tell You. Claudia Cortese had her chapbooks for sale and we eagerly await her forthcoming poetry collection, as well as Tobias Carroll's short story collection, due out next year. Rounding out the merch table were our new Halfway There tote bags, mugs and magnets. (Drop us a line if you want to buy some!)

Audience members asked thoughtful questions during the culminating Q&A session on topics such as writing difficult, vulnerable subject matter and taking risks.

Apryl announced that our submission period would open on January 1st to find new voices for a special pop-up reading event in May. (Check out our submissions page for details!) We also announced our March readers: John Keene, Ed Park, Boris Tsessarsky and Brenda Shaughnessy.

We were so pleased with the evening and can't wait for the next reading in March! 

Halfway There: September 2015

Every seat in the house and then some were filled for the first installment of Halfway There! The Red Eye Cafe brewed up cappuccinos and served brownies, Margot from Watchung Booksellers set up a table of our authors' books, and we watched in awe as people arrived, becoming the audience we hoped would materialize. The room of college students, a local writing group, family members, friends and literature enthusiasts proved what we suspected was true: Montclair is the perfect home for a reading series. 

Series host, area resident and fiction writer Apryl Lee introduced the evening. (Make sure to mark your calendars for our season closer, June 13th, when Apryl will be one of the readers, sharing her own work!) Series co-founder Nicole Haroutunian read first, a slightly shortened version of the story "Vandals," from her collection Speed Dreaming. Next up was new Maplewood resident Abby Sher, who told a moving story about how attempting to serve a dog poop sandwich to her rabbi actually brought her closer to adulthood. Abby charmed the audience into joining her in a call-and-response to the tune of Duran Duran's  "Girls on Film." Last was Montclair resident Matthew Thomas, who read a passage from his beautiful, complicated novel We Are Not Ourselves. The scene he chose--a husband and wife going to see the Christmas window display at Lord and Taylor--was exemplary of the tension, humor and empathy that characterizes his book. 

After the readings, Apryl led a Q&A session, asking first about the readers' connection to New Jersey and then about their thoughts on the work-life balance. Matthew explained that what many people think are New Jersey's detriments are actually among its best qualities, using the liberal anthem "Born in the USA," lamentably co-opted by the Right Wing, as an example. "It's green here!" he insisted. Abby shared "The Pomodoro Technique," which employs the use of the common tomato kitchen timer to enforce a writing schedule. In response to an audience question about voice, Nicole talked about accepting that hers is consistent across stories. Once described as "diffident" by a detractor, she said that she actually embraces that term now; her characters are diffident--so what?

The event concluded with more conversation and book signings. You can buy the authors' books in person at Watchung Booksellers, or online here:

Speed Dreaming by Nicole Haroutunian

Amen, Amen, Amen: Memoir of a Girl Who Couldn't Stop Praying by Abby Sher

We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas