Burning Swamp Returns: The Re-Cap

Ice storms, floods, snow, even earthquakes: the coastal Georgia area has, as of late, experienced its share of cataclysmic events.  However, rather than feeling afraid, we here at Burning Swamp feel that this is just the planet’s way of expressing its excitement that the reading series has returned.  Here are some photos from the spectacular February 11th reading — make sure that you’ve got milk, bread, flashlights, and batteries, because these are photos of some apocalyptically awesome readings.

The Walnut Room, packed with people ready to hear some good words and good work.

 

Bob Marsh starts the evening off right with a stunner of a short story.

Jared Yates Sexton and Bob Marsh: an interlude.

 

The lovely Yavaria Ryan reading her lovely poems.

Joey Blackwell, parkour practitioner and poet extraordinaire.

Heather Nysewander reading a short story that shook down the house.

Eric Nelson’s reading was too amazing to be captured on film, so here is a photo of him talking poetry with Jekka.

A behind-the-scenes look at Eric Nelson’s reading and another glimpse at that handsome crowd. Thanks to everyone who came out, and we’ll see you again in March!

Burning Swamp V: The Awesome Continues

Fellow swamp enthusiasts, it’s a very special time here in Statesboro, a time with which Southerners are intimately familiar.  It’s a time of azaleas and the oft-celebrated magnolia.  It’s a time when the very world is abloom, even the swamps (though they may be abloom with flame).  It’s a time when the tall pine trees do their tall pine tree dance in the wind, seeking that other very special tall pine tree with which to make little baby pine trees.  It’s a time in which even the cleanest sidewalk will, five minutes after being washed clean, be bright yellow and green.  It’s a time of beauty and it’s a time of terror.  It’s a time survivable only through massive doses of Benadryl, Chloraseptic, and hand sanitizer.

In other words, it’s spring.  And God help us all.

In order to inspire you through the antihistamines and remind you that there’s beauty out there in the world, even if you can’t see it through all that pollen, I give you some photographs from the March edition of the Burning Swamp Reading Series.  Enjoy — and if you have an extra box of Kleenex, would you want to share with me?

Jared Yates Sexton attempts to calm a fevered crowd frenzied at the very thought of the awesome that is to come.

Thomas Klein reads from his translations and his modernizations of Southern folk tales.

James Devlin reads the heroic tale of a young boy battling his fears.

Peyton Callanan reads a series of poems about love and lust and everything in between.

Amanda Schumacher reads from the first chapter of her YA novel.

Tangled cords and Chucks — nothing could more say “Burning Swamp Reading Series” than this.

Since March is the month of St. Patrick’s Day, Emma Bolden decided to don her finest suit of green.

2/28/13: May The Swamp Be With You

It’s time for another super-exciting photo wrap-up to celebrate another super-exciting Burning Swamp Reading Series Reading.  On February 28th, Sugar Magnolia was packed to the prehistoric gills with so much awesomeness it was almost impossible to handle.  Seriously.  I mean, look:

People, people who love swamp people …

That’s a lot of love right there, and we thank you for showing it to our readers.  Here’s a little taste of the literary smorgasbord we feasted on that evening*:

Laura Valeri reads from her short story collection, Safe in Your Head, which isn’t exactly about mermaids but is certainly every bit as awesome as mermaids are.  Wait, I take that back: EVEN MORE AWESOME than mermaids are.

Tavidee Hoskins performed a spoken word piece, and it was exactly like what Jimi Hendrix would’ve done if Jimi Hendrix did spoken word, except, thankfully, Tavidee didn’t set anything on fire — EXCEPT MINDS.

 

Efad Huq read from a story about ghosts and women and awesome and rice balls and awesome.

It’s no mystery that Tina Whittle is amazing, and she proved it by reading from a chapter of Blood, Ash, and Bone, which inspired me both to purchase Blood, Ash, and Bone immediately and to wish I knew a martial art, or all the martial arts.

Jared Yates Sexton read the rules for what to do on the occasion of a Wendigo attack.

 

Emma Bolden was just hanging out.

Stay tuned for information about our March 28th reading.  Spoiler Alert: it’s going to be AWESOME.

* I’m trying a new thing where I see how many awkward metaphors I can awkwardly mix in one entry.  It’s like making Funfetti cupcakes with dynamite instead of sprinkles.  See?  Totally awkward.

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.)

11/29/12: Swampy Returns

Legends tells of an ancient curse so terrible it sent a noble clan of primate monsters to seek the comfort and safety of the swamps, and caused them to cause havoc all across the land.  For lo, the swamp monsters know not how to deal with joy, and so they express their positive emotions by causing technical difficulties in all forms of technology around them.

This curse began at the November edition of the Burning Swamp Reading Series, when a normally well-behaved mic decided to pretend like it was the mic in front of Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock.  And after the reading, the curse spread to just about every piece of technology owned by reading series co-founder Emma Bolden, whose camera and computer stopped speaking to each other, and her camera apparently made her computer so angry that it stopped speaking to its power cord.

Perhaps this is just another case of a cryptid attempting to obscure all evidence of its existence, for when Emma’s computer began speaking to its power cord and to her camera, vital documentation of the evening of November 29th was missing.  There is enough evidence, however, to post, and to gather that the evening was awesome.

10/25/12: A Day Which Shall Live Forever In Swampy Lore

Here’s the thing about Swamp Monsters: it’s impossible to prove if they do or do not exist, largely because their awesomeness is nearly impossible to capture on film.  Thankfully, the same is not true of the awesomeness of our first set of readers — and here’s the photographic proof.