Freerange Nonfiction

Thanks to everyone who made a donation to our June 2nd fundraiser for the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary! 101% of the proceeds from the raffle will be helping a rescued farm animal live his or her life in peace and comfort. . .an animal like little Fern here:

I have a feeling you couldn’t agree more with Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary’s simple philosophy: kindness and respect to animals (whether two legs or four, proficient in grammar or not) is our moral duty, and that all the creatures that share this earth are here with us and not for us. So THANK YOU VERY MUCH for putting the karma boomerang into effect, and for making a little animal’s life much much more AWESOME.

Elvis the Cow

ALSO!

Please save the date for next month’s post-Independence Day show–>WEDNESDAY, JULY 7th at the Cornelia Street Cafe<–where we’ll be featuring authors A.B. MEYER, SUZANNE GUILETTE, and TEDDY WAYNE, as well as some talented up-and-coming writers.

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A.B. Meyer is the pseudonym of the author of two books, one fiction and one nonfiction, which were published under another name.  Her writing has often appeared in The New Yorker and The New York Times.

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Teddy Wayne is the author of the novel Kapitoil (Harper Perennial). He is a graduate of Harvard and Washington University in St. Louis, where he taught fiction and creative nonfiction writing. The recipient of a 2010 NEA Creative Writing Fellowship, his work has appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times, Vanity Fair, Time, Esquire, McSweeney’s, the Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. He lives in New York.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

“Sometimes you do not truly observe something until you study it in reverse,” writes Karim Issar upon arrival to New York City from Qatar in 1999. Fluent in numbers, logic, and business jargon yet often baffled by human connection, the young financial wizard soon creates a computer program named Kapitoil that predicts oil futures and reaps record profits for his company.

At first an introspective loner adrift in New York’s social scenes, he anchors himself to his legendary boss Derek Schrub and Rebecca, a sensitive, disillusioned colleague who may understand him better than he does himself. Her influence, and his father’s disapproval of Karim’s Americanization, cause him to question the moral implications of Kapitoil, moving him toward a decision that will determine his future, his firm’s, and to whom—and where—his loyalties lie.

CLICK HERE to see what people are saying about Wayne’s new book.

Mark your calendars for the next installment of Freerange Nonfiction Reading Series:

Wednesday, June 2nd @ NYC’s Cornelia Street Cafe  6 p.m.

Mira Ptacin, host

$7 includes (includes free house drink)

In addition to some fantastic new talent, we’ll be featuring the authors:

JOSH AXELRAD

Josh Axelrad played blackjack professionally for five years and poker unprofessionally for one. His memoir, Repeat Until Rich, is now available from  Penguin Press.

AND

LARRY SMITH, founder of the literary website SMITH Magazine and memoir editor RACHEL FERSHLEISER talk about their most recent book of nonfiction, It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure.

AND

BEN GREENMAN reading from his latest book WHAT HE’S POISED TO DO.

Both a collection of inter-connected stories about love and infidelity and a meditation on the lost art of letter writing, WHAT HE’S POISED TO DO is the latest brilliant book from the eclectic mind of New Yorker editor and rising literary star Ben Greenman. Ben is an editor at the New Yorker and the author of several acclaimed works of fiction, including the novels Please Step Back; Superbad; Superworse; and A Circle Is a Balloon and Compass Both: Stories about Human Love. His fiction, essays, and journalism have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Paris Review, McSweeney’s, and many other publications.  He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children. Harper Perennial is proud to publish WHAT HE’S POISED TO DO on June 15, 2010. Want to get involved and write some letters to fictional characters? Click here to be a part of the project, LETTERS WITH CHARACTER, inspired by Ben’s book.

You best come early to reserve a seat. Fans will be snatching them up faster than chickens on a junebug!

ALSO! IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN:

FREERANGE RAFFLE!

Freerange loves animals. And we want to do our part to make sure that they enjoy what we stand for: freedom! In March, Freerange fans opened their hearts and their wallets, we raffled off autographed books and homemade truffles, and we successfully raised enough money to sponsor Stacey the Pig and Casey the Cow, two rescued animals who now happily preside at the Farm Sanctuary in Orland, California. It felt so good to help Stacey and Casey, so we decided to do it again! At the June 2nd show, Freerange will be having another raffle to raise money for our good friends at the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary!

Elvis the Cow

So empty your coin jar, bring your spare change, buy a ticket or ten, and put the karma boomerang into effect!

Tickets are $3.00 each or 2 for $5.00.

Prizes include autographed copies of books by Freerange authors, as well as some delicious homemade vegan truffles.

Surrounded by the Catskill Mountains in the town made famous for peace and music, Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary provides shelter to cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, sheep, goats, rabbits, ducks and geese who have been rescued from cases of abuse, neglect and abandonment. The Woodstock Animal Farm Sanctuary is driven by the simple philosophy that kindness and respect to animals is our moral duty and that all the creatures that share this earth are here with us and not for us. Like our faithful dogs and lap-sitting cats, farm animals are feeling individuals who deserve to be treated with compassion and to live free of fear and suffering.

UPDATE!

Good News, Freerangers! We are now a part of the Farm Sanctuary’s “Adopt-A-Pig” and the “Adopt-a-Cow” projects! Thanks to your compassion and generosity, Freerange is now the proud sponsor of Stacey the pig, as well as Casey the cow. A big hug goes out to those of you who purchased a ticket at last month’s raffle: you are helping  suffering animals get the love they deserve by supporting the Farm Sanctuary’s efforts to directly rescue suffering animals, as well as continue investigative and legal action campaigns to protect all animals from inhumane treatment.

FREERANGE’S SPONSORED ANIMALS:

Stacey the Pig

Rescued on June 4, 2006 from a university project (ie: animal testing).

Personality: Curious and playful

Favorite foods: Rice cakes

Stacey the Pig

Casey the Cow

Casey the Cow

Rescued as an injured dairy calf on January 18, 2007

Personality: Sweet and playful

Favorite foods: Grass and hay

The Animal Farm Sanctuary is driven by the simple philosophy that kindness and respect to animals is our moral duty and that all the creatures that share this earth are here with us and not for us. Like our faithful dogs and lap-sitting cats, farm animals are feeling individuals who deserve to be treated with compassion and to live free of fear and suffering. And thanks to your donations, both Casey and Stacey are being given lifelong care in a big, open, green farm in Orland, California, where they are being ambassadors for farm animals everywhere by educating visitors about the realities of factory farming. Freerange is happy to help spread their love!

A recap from last night’s show:

Scott Korb illustrates dung use in Year One, AJ Jacobs explains how to stone adulterers (with rocks, not weed) in Central Park, Maggie Moor blows our mind with jazzy prose reminiscent of Tom Robbins (but nonfiction and female!), and Mary Ellen Marks provides the audience with a new perspective of a life/lives not lived. Cheers!

AND! Thank you to everyone who chipped in and bought a ticket for last night’s raffle. We managed to raise just enough money to sponsor both a cow and a pig at the Farm Sanctuary! Check back with our website soon for the names, photos, and descriptions of personalities of the animals you are helping live a happy, freeranging life.

Stay tuned for details on next month’s show . . .

Elvis the Cow

Empty your coin jar and bring your spare change to the next installment of Freerange: at the April 7th show, we’ll be having a raffle to raise money for our good friends at the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary! Buy a ticket and put the karma boomerang into effect!

Olivia

Surrounded by the Catskill Mountains in the town made famous for peace and music, Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary provides shelter to cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, sheep, goats, rabbits, ducks and geese who have been rescued from cases of abuse, neglect and abandonment. The Woodstock Animal Farm Sanctuary is driven by the simple philosophy that kindness and respect to animals is our moral duty and that all the creatures that share this earth are here with us and not for us. Like our faithful dogs and lap-sitting cats, farm animals are feeling individuals who deserve to be treated with compassion and to live free of fear and suffering.

Delvin

Tickets are $3.00 each or 2 for $5.00.

April 7th @ the Cornelia Street Cafe 6 p.m.

Prizes include autographed copies of books by Freerange authors, as well as some delicious homemade truffles by the host and founder of Freerange Nonfiction Reading series, Mira Ptacin (betcha didn’t know she was a brilliant baker, too!)

For more information on the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary, please click on Patsy the Pig.

Patsy the Pig

Great show last night, Freerangers! Thanks to everyone who, despite the soggy weather, came out to Cornelia Street Cafe to hear our wonderful writers read about Colorado and cocaine, Hamlet the hampster, sex and kidnapping . . .

On Wednesday, April 7th at 6 p.m., we’ll be featuring authors Scott Korb and AJ Jacobs. It’ll be a show you don’t want to miss!

Scott Korb is the author of the latest book Life in Year One: What the World Was Like in First-Century Palestine (Riverhead, March 2010)

AJ Jacobs is the author of THE KNOW-IT-ALL: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World (Simon & Schuster ‘04), THE YEAR OF LIVING BIBLICALLY: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible (Simon & Schuster ‘07), and THE GUINEA PIG DIARIES: My Life as an Experiment (Simon & Schuster ‘09).

Thank you, thank you, thank you goes to February 3rd’s Freerange readers Sarah Gillespie, Janice Erlbaum, Kyle Minor, and Meera Nair, whose poignant pieces at last night’s show broke through the fence and took off running. They made us laugh. They made us ache. They baffled us, made our hearts moist, and left us inspired. We thank you, writers, for making us all a bit more. Yes, a bit more.

And then we have the future: mark your calendars for Wednesday, March 3rd’s installment of our series, where authors Stephen Elliott and Diana Spechler will be demonstrating their nonfiction skills along with a handful of up-and-coming Freerange writers. Show starts at 6:00 p.m. at the Cornelia Street Cafe in NYC.

Stephen Elliott is the author of seven books, including The Adderall Diaries, which has been described as “genius” by both the San Francisco ChronicleTime Out New York, a best of 2009 in Kirkus Reviews, and one of 50 notable books in the San Francisco Chronicle. His novel, Happy Baby, was a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lion Award as well as a best book of the year in Salon.com, Newsday, Chicago New City, the Journal News, and the Village Voice. Elliott also the editor of The Rumpus.

Diana Spechler is author of the book Who By Fire, which was published in 2008 by Harper Collins. Her writing has appeared in Glimmer Train, Moment, Lilith, and elsewhere. Diana received her MFA degree from the University of Montana and was a Steinbeck Fellow at San Jose State University. She lives in New York City, where she is at work on her second novel.

Thanks to all our friends and fans for coming out to the January 2010 installment of Freerange Nonfiction! It was one of our best shows ever. Not only did the audience reach maximum capacity at the cafe, and not only did our readers kick badonkadonk, but WE GOT SCHOOLED! That’s right, we were given an invaluable lesson in literature, complete with easel pad, permanent marker and charts, by the guru of memoir himself, Mr. Ben Yagoda! For my notes Ben’s thoughts on the issue of how “true” a memoir should to be, as well as a useful rating chart, please click HERE.

Also! Mark your calendars for our next reading: Wednesday, February 3rd @ NYC’s Cornelia Street Cafe 6:00 p.m., where we’ll be featuring authors Janice Erlbaum, Kyle Minor, and Meera Nair, as well as some talented up-and-coming writers.

Janice Erlbaum is the author of HAVE YOU FOUND HER: A Memoir (Villard, Feb. ‘08), and GIRLBOMB: A Halfway Homeless Memoir (Villard, March ‘06).

Meera Nair grew up in India and came to the United States in 1997. She is the author of VIDEO: Stories, and a forthcoming novel from Pantheon, tentatively titled HARVEST. She recently had a story in the highly acclaimed anthology “Delhi Noir”  from Akashic Books. Her collection VIDEO won the Asian-American Literary Award and was chosen a Best Fiction Book of the Year by The Washington Post and Book magazine and was the Editor’s Choice at the San Francisco Chronicle. Her stories, articles and essays have also appeared in the New York Times magazine, the National Post , The Threepenny Review, Calyx, Discover as well as in various anthologies like “Money Changes Everything” and “Charli Chan is Dead-2.” Her story was also selected for  National Public Radio’s Selected Shorts. Meera has won fiction fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts (2004 & 2008) and the MacDowell Artists’ Colony. She lives in Queens, New York and teaches Creative Writing at New York University and in the MFA program at Brooklyn College.

Kyle Minor is the author of In the Devil’s Territory, a collection of short fiction, and co-editor of The Other Chekhov. His recent work appears in The Southern Review, The Gettysburg Review, and Plots with Guns, and in anthologies such as Best American Mystery Stories 2008 , guest edited by George Pelecanos (Houghton Mifflin, 2008), Surreal South (Press 53, 2007), edited by Pinckney Benedict and Laura Benedict, and Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers (Random House, 2006). As a graduate student at the Ohio State University, he was a three-time honoree (in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction) in The Atlantic Monthly’s annual writing contest. Random House named Kyle one of the “Best New Voices of 2006,” and The Columbus Dispatch named him one of their ”20 Under 30 Artists to Watch” in 2007.

Be sure to arrive on time to guarantee yourself a seat!

We’ll be starting the new year off right with the January 2010 installment of Freerange Nonfiction!

Please join us at 6 p.m. on Wednesday January 6th, 2010

Downstairs @ the Cornelia Street Cafe (29 Cornelia Street, NYC)

$7 cover, includes one drink

Mira Ptacin, host

With readings by: Ilana Garon, Maris James, Mike Stutzman, and Deenah Vollmer.

Featured writer: Ben Yagoda, author of the recent book “Memoir: A History.”

Ben is author, coauthor or editor of nine books, including “The Art of Fact,” “The Sound on the Page: Style and Voice in Writing” and “About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made.” He has written about language, writing and other topics for Slate.com, the New York Times Book Review and Magazine, the American Scholar, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and many other publications.

We look forward to seeing you there!