A reading and chapbook in collaboration with Hot off The (H.O.T)
Writers Heidi & George Farrah, David Lawrence Grant, Satish Jayaraj, Kate Kysar, and Beth Mayer read stories and poems inspired by H.O.T.
Writer Bios:
George and Heidi Farrah write poems, separately and together sometimes. George paints paintings, too. They both went to graduate school out East, but returned here together afterwards. George likes scotch, whereas Heidi prefers wine, but they both love to read and write in coffee shops. They also both love to teach. Heidi and George have been doing this -- writing, teaching, publishing, having shows -- for over twenty years now. They have found and continue to find it to be really, truly a lot of fun.
David Grant is a Twin Cities-based screenwriter and playwright. As a playwright and screenwriter, he has written for the Minnesota Science Museum, the Minnesota Historical Society, Mixed Blood Theater, VocalEssence, The Playwrights’ Center, The History Theatre, KTCA TV, Russell Simmons’ Def Pictures and HBO New York, and Davis Entertainment and the Showtime Network—among other places. Current projects include writing both a web-based dramatic series for children, and a book about the recent experience of finding, in Ghana, the African family from whom his father’s ancestors were separated during the transatlantic slave trade. He has fellowships from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the McKnight Foundation. His travel story, “I Hold High My Beautiful, Luminous Q’uran” appears in the book, Best Travel Writing, 2009, published by Travelers’ Tales, Palo Alto, 2009.
Satish Jayaraj primarily writes YA fantasy that is inspired by global mythology. He is always striving to find a balance between universal mythic symbolism and individuality, while also honoring the pure joy of storytelling. He has had a fairy tale published in the 2008 edition of Rock Paper Scissors and hosts diverse literary events. To satiate his supposed adult side he also writes within other genres, though after struggling to categorize some of his pieces has surrendered them to simply being genreless.
Kathryn Kysar is the author of two books of poetry, Dark Lake and Pretend the World, which will be published by Holy Cow! Press in 2011, and she edited the acclaimed Riding Shotgun: Women Write About Their Mothers. She has received fellowships from Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts, the Minnesota State Arts Board, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies. Kysar serves on the board of directors for the Association of Writers and Writing Programs and teaches at Anoka-Ramsey Community College and the Loft Literary Center. Her website is http://www.facebook.com/l/ecb0aiPeE96_DD6BjDohIfzzIww;www.kysar.com.
Beth Mayer’s fiction has appeared in The Threepenny Review and The Sun Magazine. Her story “The Way to Mercy” will be reprinted in New Stories from the Midwest, an anthology forthcoming from Ohio University Press; it also made the “Other Distinguished Stories” list featured in Best American Mystery Stories 2010. Her work has twice been selected for mnartists.org’s miniStories flash fiction competition and was first runner-up in Vita.mn’s Summer Story Contest. Beth holds an MFA from Hamline University and teaches English at Century College. www.bethmayer.com
TalkingImageConnection is an organization that brings together writers, contemporary visual artists and new audiences in art galleries around the Twin Cities. For more information contact yackmor@talkimage.org.
ARP! was a Twin Cities journal of art criticism, interviews with artists, conversations about art and much much more.
H.O.T. is an independent, pop-up publishing house facilitated by Tiff Hockin and Ariel Pate of ARP! H.O.T is a project of The Soap Factory. Please see the H.O.T page for more information about the project.