Finally got to videoing (is that a word?) again and here are readings that both Mark and I gave in the recent years. Spoken Word if you’re fancy and we know you’re fancy.
We are also reading again at First Floor Walk Up Reading Series on Monday, April 21st at 7pm at One and One LES (76 E 1st Street, New York, NY 10009). It’s free.
FB event link
Videos of us speaking in public below
Mark and I will be reading fiction at the First Floor Walk Up Reading Series on Monday, April 21st at 7pm at One and One LES (76 E 1st Street, New York, NY 10009)
All the deets below:
First Floor Walk Up Presents Bi-Weekly Readings of
Poetry and Prose at
One and One
76 E. 1st St. @ 1st Ave
F Train to 2nd Ave Station
FREE
Monday, April 21st, 7 PM
FB event link
Featured writers/poets/creatives’ bios below:
MEGHAN GRUPPOSO
Originally from the gorgeous woods of southern New Hampshire, Meghan Grupposo holds a BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School. She is a co-founder, former COO and co-editor of NeuroNautic Institute Presents and Press. Meghan’s work can be found in her handbound chapbook, Bouquet (NeuroNautic Press), & in various anthologies, including NYC From the Inside (Blue Light Press), arriving at a shoreline and Escape Wheel (great weather for MEDIA), the Dada Journal Maintenant, Issues 14-17 (Three Rooms Press), Love Love Magazine, Polarity, & Rucksack a Global Poetry Patchwork’s multimedia project, Hair in the Wind. She’s a 2020 Pushcart Prize nominee. Meghan happily resides in New York City with her two cats.
ANDREA DeANGELIS
Andrea DeAngelis is at times a poet, writer, shutterbug and musician living in New York City. Her writing has recently appeared in Carmina Magazine, Corvus Review, HauntedMTL and Bowery Gothic. Andrea also sings and plays guitar in the indie rock band MAKAR (www.makarmusic.com) who are currently recording their fourth album, Exit Earth. She tries not to disturb her neighbors by putting her guitar amp in the closet.
MARK PURNELL
Mark Purnell is a writer, investor and musician living in New York City. His writing has recently appeared in The Molotov Cocktail and he is currently working on his debut novel. Mark sings, writes and plays piano in the indie rock band MAKAR (www.makarmusic.com).
JEFFERY BERG
Jeffery Berg is a writer who lives in Jersey City. He received an MFA from NYU. His poetry has appeared in various journals, including most recently in Pine Hills Review. His film criticism can be found at Film-Forward. His debut poetry collection, RE-ANIMATOR, is forthcoming in 2026 from Indolent Books.
VIRGINIA RANDALL
Virginia Randall grew up on the Lower East Side and her work has appeared in Narratively, Italian-Americana, Straus Newspapers and various blogs. She is a freelance culture writer and former UPI reporter. This reading takes place where she bought her comics as a kid.
Please note that we’re not necessarily reading in the above order and that the event starts promptly at 7pm and ends around 8pm.
I’m also going to be uploading the past reading we did to YouTube here in the next week or so.
Hope to see you there!
Back in August 2023, I read half of my poem - Moth-eaten at the MoMA Members Open Poetry Mic.
I think this may have been their first open mic in a long time. I hope they do another one this year. We need art more than ever.
Video below. This was the first time I’ve read in public in a long time.
Both Mark and I are very excited to be reading at First Floor Walk Up Presents Bi-Weekly Readings of Poetry and Prose at One and One, 76 E. 1st St. at 1st Ave on Monday, February 26th.
The event starts at 7:00 pm and goes to 8pm – See the line-up below –
First Floor Walk Up Presents Bi-Weekly Readings of
Poetry and Prose at
One and One
76 E. 1st St. @ 1st Ave
F Train to 2nd Ave Station
FREE
Monday, February 26th, 7 PM
Facebook Event Link
ANDREA DeANGELIS
Andrea DeAngelis is at times a poet, writer, shutterbug and musician living in New York City. Her writing has recently appeared in Carmina Magazine, Corvus Review, HauntedMTL and Bowery Gothic. Andrea also sings and plays guitar in the indie rock band MAKAR (www.makarmusic.com) who recently released their third album, Fancy Hercules. She tries not to disturb her neighbors by putting her guitar amp in the closet.
MARK PURNELL
Mark Purnell is a writer, investor and musician living in New York City. His writing has recently appeared in The Molotov Cocktail and he is currently working on his debut novel. Mark sings, writes and plays piano in the indie rock band MAKAR (www.makarmusic.com).
ALLAN GRAUBARD
Allan Graubard -- poet, writer and critic -- (just published!): SUN STEP BLACK LAKE (Broken Sleep Books, Wales, UK). In 2022, he appeared as editor and contributor to the international anthology Nigredo. 2020/2019 saw the publication of three books: Western Terrace (Exstasis Editions, Victoria, BC), Language of Birds (Anon Editions, NY/LA), and Into the Mylar Chamber: Ira Cohen (Fulgur, UK).
LAURA WEISS
Laura Weiss is an author and journalist; her work has appeared in numerous newspapers and literary magazines. She was a reporter for CQ Weekly covering Congress and national politics. Laura is the author of Ice Cream: A Global History. Ice Cream has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. She was a nonfiction book reviewer and writer for Publishers Weekly. She is currently a reviewer for Bellevue Literary Review.
Now I have to make a decision on what to read…muahahaha
it will be weird for sure!
My short story Circling the Void was published in Carmina Magazine on 9/16/23.
Photo by Samuel PASTEUR-FOSSE on Unsplash
I am very excited about this. It’s an example of finding a way back to a story and revising and expanding.
I really started to work on this story, which I only had a kernel for one of Molotov Cocktail’s awesome contests. And then significantly expanded it after getting a close but no cigar from them. So it’s all about revision and persistence and finding the right home and Carmina Magazine’s mission inspired and encouraged me.
This story is also an example of songwriting and fiction coming together since the character Fancy first appeared in MAKAR’s song Fancy Hercules.
I delve into the inspiration and creation of this story in fuller detail in my author note at the end of my story.
Good Dirt I was published in Corvus Review Issue 20 Spring/Summer 2023 on July 2nd. My story starts on page 63.
July 2nd was also my mom’s birthday and this story is dedicated to her and hopefully has a little of her magic.
Good Dirt II appeared in Molotov Cocktail’s Flash Feast Contest, coming in fifth. II is a weird horror companion piece.
Good Dirt was inspired by my paternal grandmother declaring that my parents needed good dirt trucked in.
me and my mom looking alike, velour, baby
My short story The Bloom was published in HauntedMTL Charity Anthology BODIES on December 21, 2022.
A little bit about BODIES
What makes us ‘us’? Is it the body? Is it the mind? A space in-between? For over half the planet, that autonomy is taken for granted.
In this HauntedMTL Charity Anthology, we have a wide scope of horror from visual artists, poets, and writers of short prose. You’ll see some familiar faces and some first-time authors. Our tenth charity anthology has something for everyone. Yes, even you.
A percentage of every copy sold goes to:
The Emily Dickinson Museum
Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF)
The National Women’s Law Center, Girls Who Code, and NNAF Abortion Funds
buy a copy - give directly - engage - resist
‘A collection as creepy as Bodies belongs on every horror fan’s shelf...’
- Lamar Jenkins, author of The Whale Catcher’s Daughter
Never have I seen such a collection of stunning visuals mixed with prose and verse that cuts as deep as Bodies.’ - Jo Szewczyk, author of Surviving GenX
I’m busting at the seams excited to be part of this anthology. Please pick up a copy to help out these worthy causes. Thank you!
I read my short story Mara for the Bowery Gothic’s Halloween Reading at Von Bar on October 30, 2022.
Let’s go to the video tape! (many of you don’t even get that!)
Throughout my reading, I started to hunch over the mic. I only realized afterwards that the mic stand was falling and as I held onto it and my pages, I started to lean to one side! Ha!
The other contributors were so talented and I loved hearing their pieces. The final reading of the night was of Poe’s The Raven. That was such a funny and unique reading of well know piece. Loved it!
It was so awesome to get back into things, so thankful to have the opportunity.
Please check out Bowery Gothic and have a drink or two at Von Bar.
So thrilled to be in the third issue of Hallowzine!
Love art next to my piece. Candy corn will kill us all :)
Honestly, happening across this cool sugary spooky zine in the interweb just made me happy and my short flash getting accepted and the kind words of the editors, Laura & Lindsay, sent me spinning.
”We loved the pace of this, and you are so right, Hags are criminally underrated. You manage to do a lot in a short piece, and every line is really well constructed and pushed us along so fast to the next line-- I had to read it a few times because I was so excited I just kept breezing through, and I wanted to savor it a little more.”
Every acceptance just keeps me going. The Hag was inspired by a vivid South Carolina Sea Island myth I read about in Raw Head, Bloody Bones by Mary E. Lyons. I like to imagine the monster’s perspective. Especially if the monster is female.
Hallowzine, founded in the belly of a pandemic, is an annual digital zine focused on Halloween.
What a great way to celebrate Halloween!
Calling all Creepy Literates!
A Hallow’s Eve reading!
I will be reading my short story Mara along with the other Bowery Gothic contributors on Sunday, October 30th at Von Bar located at 3 Bleecker in NYC. The ghostly event starts at 6pm.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
My piece Mara was published in Bowery Gothic on September 1st in their Summer Ghosts Edition VII.
This story was inspired by the original nightmare known as Mara and other names in Time Life’s The Enchanted World’s Night Creatures fable. These were books I inherited from my Welsh grandfather. He had such a wonderful odd library, inspiration galore.
Here is a recent article from Atlas Obscura:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/original-nightmare-demon-suffocation-night-terror
I enjoy telling stories from the perspective of the monsters and having the monsters win.
The Nightmare, Henry Fuseli, 1781. JOHN HENRY FUSELI
Please check out the entire issue!
A little about Bowery Gothic
Inspired by a reading series at a haunted bar on the Bowery, Bowery Gothic is a literary journal seeking to publish the highest quality literature and art. We look for stories—both real and imagined—that exist in that liminal space: between the seen and unseen; between entertainment and fear. We are excited by work that stands at the threshold and looks into the unknown. We are excited by the sublimity of terror.
We are not interested in gore, violence, or perversion. Instead, send us literary work that transcends genre, that scares us and makes us think: Damn, that was fresh. We are drawn to literature that conjures up tales told by our favorite writers—from Henry James to Kelly Link; Shirley Jackson to Octavia E. Butler—stories that entice, amaze, terrify.
My story Good Dirt II was published in Molotov Cocktail’s Flash Feast Contest. I got #5 out of 10!
A little taste
“I don’t know what I was before I was born into slow flesh, flawed and corrupting, but I know I will find the answers grubbing in the dirt”
My other submission Good Dirt I got a close-but-no-cigar shortlist shout-outs! Pretty cool and it eggs me on because sometimes writing is a lonely pursuit and you get covered in dirt.
Very excited that Good Dirt II will be included in a future Molotov Cocktail’s Prize Winners Anthology print issue.
Please sink your teeth into the entire Flash Feast issue!
And congrats to all the winners!
PS: a friend of mine said that this story “treads the fertile uncertain line between horror and sci-fi”. So I feel cool now
My flash fiction piece, Morforwyn, was published in The Wild Hunt - Is it safe? Issue # 2 on July 28, 2020.
Look at the fantastic art below. Have to ask the editor who the visual artist is.
The Wild Hunt posted on twitter the following sentiment which I think sums up my reason for writing this story.
Mermaids are not usually thought of as dangerous. Nor is it in the universal folklore that humankind did terrible things to them but of course we did. (That’s if they existed).
I was especially inspired by this cryptozoology I came across about Welsh mermaids. (I am a quarter Welsh and would love someday to visit Wales but who knows now. Some mermaids started out as giants, they diminished as everything seems to do when encountering certain elements of humanity.
My piece Detached was published in Molotov Cocktail on January 31, 2020 in Volume 10, Issue 12. What a way to start the new year!
The cover art for Volume 10, Issue 12 of Molotov Cocktail
I actually wrote this story and submitted it to Molotov’s Flash Monster 2019 contest but it did not make it into their Top 10. But I did receive a "Close But No Cigar" shout-out on the site.
I never would have written this story without that contest. I always wanted to write about the penanggalan but Molotov gave me the push.
I discovered the penanggalan through D&D. Its illustration was always one of more grotesque ones. But it also haunted me. And then I found the Fiend Folio at my childhood home.
None of the origin stories I read completely satisfied me. I fixated on the fact that a penanggalan will remain unnaturally beautiful throughout her life.
I’ve always wondered what made a woman choose to become a penanggalan (and if it was a choice). I examined the physical price of beauty and the extremes some go to attain that irreproachable veneer.
Hope you enjoy!
I am honored that my poem Rape Kits was published in the 3rd edition of Pandora’s Box in Timeless Tales Magazine.
This poem was inspired by the HBO documentary - I am evidence and the appalling reality of the rape kit backlog remaining untested in the hundreds of thousands. I was horrified by the idea of these boxes in a warehouse where birds were actually making nests of the evidence, of these women’s bodies and pain, evidence that could put the rapists behind bars. And who better to open the boxes than Pandora?
Pandora opening the box is frequently seen as cataclysmic but in this case, she’s a warrior, doing what is necessary for justice. All the emotions from the collective violations released giving the victims hope.
A word about the moths – in some versions of the myth, the “bad” things released are described as moths and I thought what if these moths were avenging goddesses and in my internet sleuthing came across Theodore D. Sargent’s invaluable Working Paper of Attributes - Goddesses – Moths. I have always thought that moths were underrated.
About Timeless Tales Magazine
Timeless Tales is a digital magazine exclusively publishing retellings of fairy tales and classic myths since 2013. Please be sure follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.
My other stories published by Timeless Tales - Home is Where the Bone is and The World is Inside.
Goofing around in Queens Botanical Gardens
My flash fiction piece, The Eyes, was published in Molotov Cocktail’s Flash Legend Mega Issue.
The craziest thing about this is Mark’s (my husband) piece La Puerta placed in the top ten of their Flash Legend contest as well. The editors commented that --
“We also saw a Molotov first, with two people who apparently live at the same address each scoring a slot in the Top 10 (must be something in the water)."
Once we saw that scrolling down on the contest winners’ announcement page, we hoped they were talking about us.
And they were!
My story
The Eyes – No. 4
https://themolotovcocktail.com/vol-10/flash-legend/the-eyes/
Note about this story’s inspiration - I wrote it about The Deogen legend in the Sonian Forest .
Mark’s story and first published piece below
La Puerta – No. 9 (a suitable musical placement)
https://themolotovcocktail.com/vol-10/flash-legend/la-puerta/
Also, super exciting, both of our stories will be included in Molotov Cocktail’s Fifth Annual Prize Winners Anthology (details on that in late summer).
We’re looking forward to reading the entire issue.
The Molotov Cocktail is a Portland-based electronic literary journal serving as a projectile for incendiary flash fiction of the dark and offbeat variety. We believe flash fiction should ignite on contact and engulf the page.
Check them out on Twitter too.
My short story Nocnitsa was published in The Molotov Cocktail in their Issue 10.1 today - April 9, 2019!
They called it a “vivid and compelling piece”!
Inspiration - I don’t remember how I happened across this creature. It may have been while researching nightmares during a relentless insomnia bout. But I was struck by its physiology – an ethereal being composed of smoke and a screeching voice. It caused me to imagine a lower physical body of vapor and sounds, the opposite of a physical self. According to folklore, she could shape shift into a raven, but that sounded too generic to me. I had recently become fascinated with the Vampire Finch, a blood sucker, which seemed more fitting for the Nocnitsa. Then I began wondering what specific kind of rage would make one into such a creature. When your body and everyone else fails you. And out of all that came my story of Nocnitsa.
About
The Molotov Cocktail is an Portland-based electronic literary journal serving as a projectile for incendiary flash fiction of the dark and offbeat variety. We believe flash fiction should ignite on contact and engulf the page.
Check them out on Twitter too.
My short story, The World is Inside, was published in the wonderful Timeless Tales’ Snow Queen Issue on December 20, 2016. The whole issue revolves around The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen.
You can read the whole issue here –
https://simplebooklet.com/snowqueen
I went futuristic for this one. I enjoy pushing myself into new genres and short stories are some of the best ways to approach a new genre.
A little bit of how / why I approached this fairy tale the way I did --
What captured my interest in Andersen’s original tale was how insular Gerda and Kai’s life seemed before the Snow Queen took Kai away. I wanted to exaggerate and emphasize that isolation. For my way into a new twist on an old story, I usually begin with the physical architecture, a visual scaffolding allowing me to build a new narrative. I started to imagine where they lived as two ultra modern high-rises with their communal connecting space as a suspended garden house pod. I’ve always been fascinated by pedestrian bridges and with the idea that they could be retooled as a living space. The original tale is from Gerda’s point of view, so I wrote a story where Gerda was part of the problem and Kai’s need for escape was understandable and necessary.
About Timeless Tales:
Timeless Tales is a digital magazine exclusively publishing retellings of fairy tales and classic myths since 2013. http://www.timelesstalesmagazine.com/
Be sure to follow them on Twitter - https://twitter.com/timelesstales1
And like them on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TimelessTalesMagazine
My short story, Home is where the bone is, about how Baba Yaga would handle hipsters and gentrification was published on November 15th in Timeless Tales Issue #5 dedicated to everyone’s favorite crone.
You can click here to read.
http://www.timelesstalesmagazine.com/#!baba-yaga/c1qiu
There’s a download the PDF button in the left hand corner of the cover in case you want to take Baba with you.
Trevor Merrill designed all this great art!
While you can read the issue for free, in order to hear an audio version of all the stories in this issue, you will need to become a patron. Linkage here – http://www.timelesstalesmagazine.com/patronage
A little about Timeless Tales --
"Timeless Tales brings new life to the classics. Our authors spin the fairy tales and myths we already know into fresh stories with unexpected twists."
Please check out their sites below, follow them on twitter and like them on Facebook.
Trevor Merrill designed all this great art!
I’m incredibly honored to have been selected by the Editor in Chief of Umbrella Factory Magazine to be part of their Editors and Contributors issue #21. I was one of six contributors from issues 1-20 to be a part of this issue!
Five of my poems - I should have done something, Fern, Pipe Dream, Daughter Decay & rummy - were published in this issue on September 15, 2015.
You can read the issue at following link
ttp://issuu.com/blog-site/docs/issue_21?e=0/30086363
A little about Umbrella Factory Magazine:
“We are a small press determined to connect well-developed readers to intelligent writers and poets through virtual means, printed journals, and books. We believe in making an honest living providing the best writers and poets a forum for their work.”
Be sure to follow Umbrella Factory on twitter and like them on FB
