• About


    What is Freerange Nonfiction?

    Freerange Nonfiction is a successful monthly nonfiction reading series located in the heart of New York City that brings together up-and-coming and established writers on one small stage to share their work with the rest of the world.


    We practice the method of literary husbandry where the authors are permitted to write, read, and roam freely instead of being constrained by traditional categories or labels. The principle is to allow the writers as much freedom as possible, to live out their instinctual behaviors in a reasonably natural way, regardless of whether or not they are eventually killed for meat.


    History

    Freerange Nonfiction was conceived in 2008 by a young writer named Mira Ptacin, (see bio below), then a first-year MFA student at Sarah Lawrence College’s nonfiction writing program. She was hungry for a home where she and her classmates could share their work (with an audience beyond each other) and mingle with a community made up of writers AND those who appreciated the arts. The first installment of Freerange was at Cornelia Street Cafe on February 6, 2008. It featured four fresh writers and one Pulitzer Prize-winning author (Dale Maharidge), contained no additives or preservatives, and the series has been going strong ever since!


    In addition to spreading the love of storytelling, the greater mission of Freerange is to give lesser known writers a chance to share their work in the presence of established and influential authors, literary agents, book lovers and story fiends, as well as a fun and supportive crowd. And each Freerange installment always seems to leave these readers, as well as the audience, feeling refreshed and inspired.


    Freerange Nonfiction has featured established writers such as Susan Orlean, Vijay Seshadri, Philip Lopate, Ben Yagoda, Kathryn Harrison, Nick Flynn, Abigail Thomas, Tin House Magazine founder Rob Spillman, Ben Greenman, Meera Nair, Karol Nielsen, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Douglas Rogers, Mark Childress, Dale Maharidge, and Jeffrey Gustavson. Nearly all of our “up-and-coming” Freerangers continue to do great things after exiting the Freerange stage. They keep us posted on their progress, too, such as recent publications, awards, grants, book projects and book deals, as well as any opportunities for their fellow writers (see our Tidings page.)   We’re a supportive and growing community, and we’d love for you to become a member of our Freerange family, too.


    About the Founder


    Mira Ptacin is the founder and hostess of Freerange. She was born and raised by two freerange-thinking parents in Battle Creek, a small city in the southwestern part of the Michigan mitten. Battle Creek is also where a certain Dr. John Harvey Kellogg invited cornflakes and turned the city into the cereal capital of the world. (If you’re ever in Mira’s hometown and you smell Froot Loops in the morning, it means it’s going to rain in the afternoon.) After Michigan, there was a brief stint in Mongolia for Mira, then she headed to Maine, then Manhattan, then finally landed in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where she currently resides with her husband Andrew Jackson and their two dogs, Huckleberry and Maybe–a Bluetick Coonhound/Shar Pei mix and a Jack Russell Terrier mutt, respectively.


    Mira is a graduate of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies and holds a Master’s degree in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College. Her pieces have been published in LUMINA, Epiphany Literary Magazine, Nerve.com, The Morning News, the Citron Review, Anderbo.com, New York Magazine, Sunday Salon, Cerise Press, CommonDreams.org, and more. She recently completed her first book of nonfiction, Poor Your Soul, which is a memoir about the uterus and the American Dream.