NONFICTION FOR NO REASON
THIS literary event SERIES CELEBRATES NONFICTION WRITERS YOU LOVE, AND THE ONES YOU DON’T KNOW YET.
not for those allergic to earnestness.
Generously supported by:
days
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nonfiction for no reason
upcoming events
04.25.2024
Another one for the books. Good friends, old favorites, new connections, brand new books, and poets serving nonfiction, all in one of the places I hold most dear in this city. Mark your digital and physical calendars, friends. And please welcome, clockwise from top left: Diana Khoi Nguyen, Veronica Wasson, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, Marcus Harrison Green, Nicole Hardy, Becca Rose Hall, M Freeman, and Indira Dahlstrom. See you there at 7pm PST. Livestream’s here.
This round, we’re introducing a $10 cover charge to help make Nonfiction for No Reason self-sustaining. Please buy your ticket in advance, and thank you as always for supporting us.
05.18.2024
We’re doing a lot again. Nina St. Pierre is coming out from NYC with her new book Love is a Burning Thing. Jessica E. Johnson is up from Portland with her new book Mettlework. Moonyeka and Amy Hirayama are dipping into nonfiction, Jay Aquinas Thompson will have their nonfiction chapbook The Resurrection Appearances available, and dear titan Putsata Reang will join after many months of attempting to make schedules work to get her on a line up. If you’ve never seen Kamari Bright on a stage one way or another, you don’t want to miss this.
And this is just the beginning.
And it’s all a fundraiser for the new writer’s space from Common Area Maintenance, so we’ll have more readers to earn your dollars, and books will be for sale from Third Place Books. Let’s pack the house and make CAM’s new space for writers the dream it’s meant to be.
Save the dates
- September 2024. New York, New York.
- October 11, 2024. Seattle.
- November 2, 2024. Seattle.
PASt events
Hybrid and BnA_Wall, TOKYO, JAPAN
3.6.2024
This one year anniversary event, coincided with a big birthday for me. So, we went to Japan! And 100 people came! This incredible line up of internationally award-winning and translated writers read in Japanese and English. Clockwise from top left: Kanako Nishi, Yuki Tejima, Ginny Tapley Takemori, Kyoko Nakajima, Florentyna Leow, Leo Elizabeth Takada, Craig Mod, and Ann Tashi Slater. We livestreamed on the NFNR YouTube channel, so you can watch the magic forever.
My last family home in LA
01.05.2024
On this quick trip back to the place I grew up, we got very meta. These incredible writers gave nonfiction in the last place I lived in Los Angeles before I left for college. I’ve written essays about these rooms, and we stood in it, spoke into a mic right where the Jewish xmas tree used to go, in a generous stranger’s living room, and had an amazing time. This line up was a dream: Chris Belcher, Elizabeth Burch_Hudson, Sydney S. Kim, Erin Marie Lynch, Greg Mania, Cassandra Lane, and Myriam Gurba. Plus we had my sweetest childhood pal, Justin Seagrave debut his original song, The Waterfall, about how starts and ends happen in the same place. Watch below and excuse me while I burst into tears.
Elliott Bay Book Company
12.07.2023
An extra special co-hosted NFNR for the release of SAD HAPPENS: A Celebration of Tears with Daniel Tam Claiborne. We heard work from Daniel himself straight from the collection, plus Frances Dinger, Vincent Rendoni, Jessica Mooney, Yitka Winn, Kristen Millares Young, and yours truly.
Little Saigon Creative, International District
11.08.2023
This was a really special one. Three new books, four new projects, and rare nonfiction from a couple of fiction writers. Hashtag blessed. Thank you: Celeste Chan, Lisa Chen, Rachel Edelman, Angela Garbes, Tessa Hulls, Bretty Rawson, Ray Stoeve, and Diana Xin.
Base Experimental Arts + Space, Georgetown
10.08.2023
The heart and risk and beauty in this reading. This line up of multi-talented artists, activists, performers, and writers. I was humbled.
Amber Flame NaKeesa Frazier-Jennings Reagan Jackson Rachel Kessler Susan Lieu Anne Liu Kellor
The Stacks Coffeehouse, Portland
07.08.2023
Another beautiful success. We built community, we had our first cry at the mic, not one but two pieces written day-of knocked us all out, and there were lols. Check out these incredible Tin House Summer Workshop 2023 talents, and don’t miss out on Alissa or Vanessa, the Portland stars holding it all down for us.
Alissa Hattman Daniel Garcia Kay Gram Vanessa Friedman Jessica Lynne Flávia Monteiro isabella matilde esser munera Quyen Pham Annie Tan Whitney Washington
Third Place Books, Seward Park
05.25.2023
Every one of these readers were incredible. Jane Wong’s excerpt from her new memoir, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City from Tin House, literally explained why she’s so good at clothes. 2023 NEA grant recipient Ally Ang brought a lot of queer sex to the well-lit room, we got the first public reading of Rebecca Clarren’s The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance which available this October, and the incredibly talented PhD dropout Grace Dunbar-Miller blew everyone away with an essay she wrote that morning. I can’t wait for the next one.
The Woods
march 9
The inaugural event with Erica Berry, Lilly Dancyger, Minda Honey, Natalie Lima, Corinne Manning, Kristen Millares Young, Katherine D. Morgan, and surprise guests Anastacia Renee, Grace Loh Prasad, and yours truly.
KATIE LEE ELLISON 