1/24/13: The Legend Continues

Only now, weeks after the explosively awesome return of The Burning Swamp Reading Series, has the swamp-gas-smoke cleared enough for me to see my computer screen and post photographic evidence of said explosively awesome event.

And said event was so explosively awesome that I must begin this with a warning: please be careful with these photographs.  Their pure incredible may melt the very screen of your computer into a stream of diodes and plastic and glass-returned-to-sand (or whatever computer screens may actually be made of, because I don’t really know), and in the process, they may burn your retinas with the power of ten thousand white hotly awesome suns.

You have been warned.

And if you’re interested in witnessing this awesomeness yourself, you’ll have the chance in the next few weeks, with the February installment of the Series.  Keep your eyes open for announcements — just make sure that they’re open behind protective eye-wear.

First, a swamp miracle!  I was able to recover the photographs my camera kept for itself last time around.  Here’s a picture of Gerrard Davis, in the midst of filling the world with joy:

The posting of this may be belated, but that doesn’t make it any less incredible.

And now, the photos from January’s reading.  Sunglasses on.

Benjamin Drevlow starts off the awesome with a now-legendary reading of a story about an ER visit. I’d give more details but it would be physically dangerous to post so much awesome on this page.

Luca Inghilleri has one thing to say to you, and that is that this reading was AWESOME.

Here’s a picture of the audience. You, audience? You were the bestest ever.

Hannah Frank reads a heart-warming essay (and rends tears from the normally-stone-cold heart of Professor Bolden).

Our noble co-founder Jared Yates Sexton breaks out the jazz hands in celebration of this reading.

Evin Hughes reads a short story about the earth shaking so amazing that it shook the very earth itself.

Christina Olson rocks the hiz-ouse with her awesometacular poems, two of which can be found here (you’re going to want to follow that link. I mean it. I’ll wait.)
(Are you back? Good. Because now your life is changed, and for the AWESOMER.)

Emma Bolden listens carefully, if slowly, to the amazingness around her.
(Okay, actually, that’s not really a picture of me, it’s just a picture that looks a lot, lot, LOT like me. I’m always on the other side of the camera, so this eerily similar photograph is as close as I can get.)

Introducing: Christina Olson

I think it’s pretty fair to say that everyone has had a good start to 2013.  I mean, none of us died in the Mayan Robot Zombie Apocalypse of Two Aught One Two, so that’s a good start right there.  Even the Swamp Monsters of Bulloch county have been full of joy and optimism: just yesterday, I noticed the trees near my neighborhood swamp were newly bedecked with moss, and Walgreen’s is newly stocked with all manner of green nail polishes, which seems related.

Here’s something to make the first month of your first Post-Mayan Robot Zombie Apocalypse of Two Aught One Two even more awesome: the third edition of The Burning Swamp Reading Series, and our first reading of Two Aught One Three.  Said reading will take place at Sugar Magnolia on Thursday, January 24th.  Sugar Magnolia will be serving up all manner of deliciousness before the reading — pizza night from 5 to 8! — and our readers will be serving up a whole host of delicious poems and stories and essays and other awesome pieces of writing for your mental palate’s pleasure at 8 pm.  Our all-star start-of-the-year line-up includes Christina Olson, Benjamin Drewlov, Hannah Frank, Evin Hughes, and Luca Inghilleri.

That means it’s time for me to make an awkward transition and for you to start to get to know our readers, starting with the talented and glamorous Christina Olson.

A Little About Christina Olson

Christina Olson is the author of a book of poems, Before I Came Home Naked. Her poetry and

This is a photograph of Christina Olson, fresh from salting swamp monsters.

nonfiction has recently appeared (or will soon) in The Normal School, Gastronomica, Rhino, and Hobart. She is the poetry editor of Midwestern Gothic, teaches writing and technical communication at Georgia Southern University, and recently completed a chapbook-length series of poems based on mid-1990s episodes of Law & Order. She lives in Statesboro and online at <www.thedrevlow-olsonshow.com>.

Christina’s Answers to Our Swamp Survey:

1.    What’s your favorite cryptozoology creature?

The coelacanth. Not technically a cryptozoology creature, but come on! It was thought dead for, oh, 65 million years, and then found alive in 1938. That’s pretty fantastic. Plus, it is ugly.

2.     Do you believe in Swamp Primates?

As much as I believe in poetry, which is to say, a lot.

3.     What do you think we should do about all of the recent Swamp Primate attacks?

Take care of them the same way you do slugs in the garden: set out a dish of beer and let them drink until they get sloppy. They’ll fall in and drown. We’ll need to scale up, but it should work.