Freerange Nonfiction

“Mira’s readings are always engaging, warm, funny, and full, whether she’s hosting well-known or emerging voices, because she provides a safe place to bare your soul.”

–Karol Nielsen, author of the forthcoming memoir, BLACK ELEPHANTS (University of Nebraska Press)

“Freerange totally rocks. What a great addition to the culture of nonfiction writing, and what a lot of fun to attend one of their readings. I’ve never seen a livelier, more into-it audience.”

–Ben Yagoda, professor of English at the University of Delaware, and author of “About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made,” “The Sound on the Page: Style and Voice in Writing,” “When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It” and the most recent book, “Memoir: A History.”

“Freerange. What a lovely idea. As in: what are writers, really, but a different kind of animal, always looking to escape the sterile factory, to jump the fence in search of more space. Too often are we forced to choose between “this or that,” when often it is “neither this nor that.” It is something else entirely. That is precisely what Freerange is all about: to acknowledge that the search for this “something else” never ends. As in: we jump the fence, not to build another, but for the sake of jumping.”

–Adam Theron-Lee Rensch, writer

“Freerange Nonfiction, superbly curated by Mira Ptacin, is a consistently engaging series that is like a living literary journal—her eye for the mix of her offerings is acute, and the cabaret intimacy adds a vivifying dimension to the work. When a writer as talented as Mira takes time from her own work to organize a series as vibrant and varied as Freerange, it is a form of service to the literary community whose value cannot be overestimated. For anyone interested in the spectacle of living minds (besides their own) grappling with truth and actuality, it’s the place to be on the first Wednesday evening of the month!”

–Jeffrey Gustavson, Epiphany Literary Magazine

“The Freerange Nonfiction Reading Series is a delightful amalgamation of accomplished literary voices, some recognizable and others just beginning to be heard.”

– Mary Ellen Marks, freelance writer, Senior Nonfiction Editor of LUMINA 2009 Literary Journal, and author of “Child of the Sea,” published by the University of California Santa Barbara’s Spectrum Anthology

“Freerange has given me the opportunity to both hear and read with writers who are heroes of mine, as well as discover new talented people to admire. What more could you ask for in a reading series? Perhaps its most outstanding characteristic is that it treats all writers, regardless of credentials, as equals — artists trying to find their way in the world.”

–Barbara Sueko McGuire, writer

“I’ve been continually impressed by the judiciousness and adventurousness of Mira’s choices for Freerange. Literary programming of the kind she does is itself a form of literary art, and one she manages flawlessly.”

–Vijay Seshadri, poet, essayist, literary critic of significant repute. Winner of the James Laughlin Award, The Paris Review’s Bernard F. Conners Long Poem Prize, and MacDowell Colony Fellowship for Distinguished Poetic Achievement.