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!