I Had It Bad Reading Series

Taking a break...

2010-01-18T16:49:00.000-08:00

And wondering what will come next. I HAD IT BAD's run at Happy Ending Lounge has ended after a very happy and successful 2009. If you are interested in helping to revive the series, please contact me.

I Had It Bad in June!

2009-06-14T22:46:00.000-07:00

June is the most popular month for weddings. Are you not getting married this month? Are you already married? Getting divorced? Whatever the case, come out this Wednesday June 17 for I HAD IT BAD, featuring the lovely and talented ladies of the most delightful month of the year.

JUNE 17, 2009

8-10 PM

FEATURED AUTHORS

Jessie Marshall recently graduated from NYU with an MFA in creative writing. She also studied literature at the University of York and theater at Oberlin College. Her story, "Dogs," appeared in The Gettysburg Review last year, and she's currently working on a collection of short stories.

Elizabeth Gumport is a writer from New York City. She has written for the New York Observer, Nextbook, Bookslut, and n+1, and her fiction has appeared in Canteen and Conjunctions. She is currently an MFA candidate at Johns Hopkins University.

Vasundara Varadhan is an administrator and teacher at New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where she teaches courses in communication, South Asian literature, and writing. Pieces from her memoir-in-progress, Midnight's Daughter, have appeared in the Gallatin Review and the South Asian Review.

ABOUT YOUR SPECIAL GUEST HOST

Lynne Beckenstein recently received her MFA in Fiction from NYU, where this fall she will be Language Lecturer in the Expository Writing Program. She lives in Brooklyn.

Mother, May I Come to I Had It Bad?

2009-05-18T22:59:00.000-07:00

Tie ribbons in your thinning hair and dance around the yonic Maypole, because I HAD IT BAD is back with a vengeance in this second-cruelest-month of spring follies. Please come join us this WEDNESDAY, May 20, from 8 - 10 PM at Happy Ending Lounge, 302 Broome Street at Forsythe in Manhattan's Chinatown!

Reading this month are:

James Yeh (b. 1982) is a founding editor of Gigantic. His fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in PEN America, elimae, The New-York Ghost, the anthology Thirty Under Thirty and elsewhere. Currently he is at work on a novel-in-stories called I Love and Understand You and Would Be Perfect to You Now. Born and raised in Anderson, South Carolina, he is very angry about that. Now he lives in Brooklyn with Ben Blum.

Once, Lucrecia Zappi took her son on a secret vacation to Las Vegas. She holds an MFA from New York University and is at work on her first novel, Black Ounce, Lucrecia collaborates as a free-lance journalist for the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.

Ben Blum lives in Brooklyn with James Yeh. He has written on books and music for Resonance Magazine and on causal reasoning and game theory for Cognitive Science and the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research. He went to college when he was thirteen and holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California at Berkeley, which hopefully you shouldn't be able to tell by reading his fiction or looking at him.

Lisa Locascio was born in 1984 and raised in River Forest, Illinois. She has received fellowships from Western Michigan University, New York University, the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, and the University of Southern California, where, this fall, she will begin the PhD in Literature & Creative Writing as the Virginia C. Middleton fellow. She is at work on her first book, a collection of short stories entitled Peculiar Qualifications. Her writing has appeared in The Northwest Review, The Minetta Review, Prairie Margins, and is forthcoming in Lake Affect and Joyland Chicago.

We Had It Bad!

2009-04-19T18:46:00.000-07:00

Below please find pictures from the April I HAD IT BAD at Happy Ending Lounge! Thank you to all whom came, and especially to our lovely readers Lynne Beckenstein, Deenah Vollmer, Maureen McNeil and Kera Yonker.

It's That Time Again!

2009-04-12T16:19:00.001-07:00

Come out for the fourth I HAD IT BAD this Wednesday, April 15, 8 - 10 PM at Happy Ending Lounge, 302 Broome Street at Forsythe. To combat the masculine dominance over past programs (and, y'know, the history of the world) we have an all-ladies, all-fun, all the time line up for April, the awesomest month.

To wit:

Originally from Los Angeles, Deenah Vollmer is a non-fiction candidate in Columbia's MFA program. She sometimes writes music listings for The New Yorker and plays music with Huggabroomstik, Kung Fu Crimewave, and Old Hat. Her writing and illustrations have been printed in numerous small publications too obscure for her to even remember. Deenah lives in Brooklyn.

Lynne Beckenstein is a candidate for an MFA in Fiction at NYU, where she also teaches in the Expository Writing Program. She lives in Brooklyn.

Writer and arts educator Maureen McNeil is the director of education at The Anne Frank Center USA where she creates programs on literacy and tolerance inspired by Anne Frank's arc of self discovery in her diary. Maureen's collection of fiction, Red Hook Stories, based on Red Hook, Brooklyn in the 1980s, came out last year. Her short stories and poems have been published in Mothering Magazine, The Woodstock Journal, Oxalis, The Literary Review and Home Planet News, among others. She has recently read at Kentler International Drawing Center, Sunny's Bar and the New School and is currently writing two novels.

Kera Yonker , a graduate of Smith College, runs the 2nd Draft Reading Series. Her work has appeared in McSweeney's Internet Tendency and other publications.

As usual, your crush stories will win you a free drink, and a good time will be had by all!

I HAD IT BAD this Wednesday, March 18, at 8 PM!

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This month we've got an extra special bunch of writers and performers gracing the Happy Ending stage. Reading this Wednesday will are:

Meg Griffiths is a Chicago native. Meg is co-creator of BAMcomedý Live at BAMcafé Live, the ground-breaking first-ever comedy show at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Memorable television roles include the IMDB-worthy appearance as “herself” on E!’s The Gastineau Girls. Meg has shared her malleable facial expressions with audiences at The Magnet, Upright Citizen’s Brigade, Mo Pitkin’s House of Satisfaction, Gotham City, Philadelphia Improv Theater, Mid-Atlantic Comedy Festival, and other sundry underground comedy venues. When not onstage, she makes rent by organizing multi-million dollar fundraising events as a freelance event planner. She currently performs with the improv group The Baldwins.

Sam Schreiber is in his second semester studying fiction at NYU. His fiction has appeared in Lambeth Quarterly while his music criticism has been printed in urbancode magazine, collegenews.com, and the Chicago Music Project. Sam hails from the Pacific Northwest, lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and has spent entirely too much time in the Midwest. This is his first New York reading.

DC Pierson is a writer/performer in the comedy group DERRICK, whose sketch videos have been viewed over 100 million times online. Their first full-length feature film, Mystery Team premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. He has appeared on MTV, G4, and on NBC's 30 Rock. He has written for, performed in, and directed numerous shows at the UCB Theater. He graduated from NYU's Dramatic Writing program in 2007 with a degree in writing for television. He wrote a novel, The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep And Never Had To, which is forthcoming from Anchor Books/Random House in early 2010.

Will Heinrich was born and raised in New York. His novel The King's Evil was published in 2003 and won a PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowship in 2004. He is seven feet tall and completely bulletproof.

Photos from last night's I HAD IT BAD!

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Last night's I HAD IT BAD was a smashing success. Thank you to everyone who came out, laughed, cried, and cried while laughing.

Joe Giarratano starts things up.

Cody Peace Adams recounts a life of longing.

Jonathan Padua reads from his story "Millenials."

Audience member Charles Antin relates a soapy tale.

Nick Sylvester tells his New York stories.

You are all so beautiful.

Photos by Jessie Marshall

Promo!

2009-02-18T07:45:00.000-08:00

Here is a promo for TONIGHT'S I HAD IT BAD Reading starring yours truly, made by the lovely people at DELIPROOF!

Deli Proof Daily! #1 from Deli Proof on Vimeo.

Come one, come all, 8-10 PM at HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE, 302 Broome Street at Forsythe in Manhattan's Chinatown!

The Next "I Had It Bad" is this Wednesday, February 18!

2009-02-14T21:53:00.000-08:00

Come out this Wednesday to Happy Ending Lounge, 302 Broome Street at Forsythe, to check out a special Valentine's-ish sausage-fest of an "I Had It Bad." As ever, there will be drink tickets for brave souls willing to bear their hearts for the microphone. Be there or be female, apparently.

FEBRUARY 18, 2009
8 – 10 pm

FEATURED AUTHORS

Joseph Philip Giarratano was born and raised in a small town on Long Island. After graduating college in 2007 he began pursuing comedy as a creative escape from his day job, debuting at Governors Comedy Club on Long Island in May, 2008. His humor derives from everyday occurrences and often outrageous stories from his life. If only his elementary school teachers could see him now...

Cody Peace Adams is an expert kisser of dogs. He runs Erection of Disbelief, a film review website.

Jonathan Padua's fiction has appeared in Fugue, Perpetual Magazine, Undrawn Lines: An Anthology of Hawaii Writers, A Thousand Faces, and Pindeldyboz. Originally from Pearl City, Hawaii, he now resides in Brooklyn.

Nick Sylvester is from Philadelphia. You can read his work in The Wire, Village Voice, n+1, Fanzine, and Riffmarket. Currently he plays drums for the rock band Mr. Dream, co-curates the downtown zine Perineum, and writes internet pranks for The Colbert Report.

Call For Readers

2009-02-05T20:15:00.001-08:00

Tell your mom, your sister, your best friend, and yourself, because I HAD IT BAD wants your stories of unrequited love, object obsession, bad idea road trips to visit a C-list 70s celebrity now backslidden into obscurity, and remembered passions. Email submissions and questions to me at lisa.locascio (at) gmail (dot) com.

INAUGURAL NIGHT! The first "I Had It Bad" on January 21, 2009

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The first "I Had It Bad" was held on January 21, 2009, and it was a smashing success. Readers Will Begeny, Caedra Scott-Flaherty, Rollie Hochstein and Rivka Galchen brought the house down with their phenomenal stories of thwarted desire. Four brave members of the audience also came forward with stories of crush-worthy Trader Joe's employees, girls with boyfriends in bands, and ill-advised softball playing. For their fearless sharing they were given drink tickets and love.

Below please find some charmingly blurry pictures from the evening and bios of the featured authors. Come out to the next "I Had It Bad," on February 18, 2009, from 8-10 PM at Happy Ending Lounge, 302 Broome Street at Forsythe in Manhattan's Chinatown.

Will Begeny reads from his story "Rodeo"

Authors Rivka Galchen and Caedra Scott-Flaherty engage in breaktime hijinks.

Rolaine Hochstein reads from her story "Gemini"

An audience member tells of poorly-considered athleticism in the name of love.

Rivka Galchen reads from her story "Wild Berry Blue"

JANUARY 21, 2009
FEATURED AUTHORS

Will Begeny is originally from Royal Oak, Michigan. A graduate of the University of Michigan, he is the editor of a travel writing website and lives in Brooklyn.

Caedra Scott-Flaherty is from Rochester, New York. A graduate of Brown University, she served as an AmeriCorps member in North Carolina, and is currently an MFA candidate at New York University's Creative Writing Program. She teaches playwriting and visual arts to incarcerated youth, and is a dancer and choreographer. She is the winner of Open City's 2008 RRofihe Trophy Award for short fiction.

Rolaine Hochstein has published two novels and 34 short stories, several of which have won awards including the O. Henry prize, the Pushcart prize and the Seaton First Prize of the Kansas Arts Council. Her articles on women’s issues (also humor and celebrity profiles) have been featured in leading national magazines. She has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the NJ State Council on the Arts, is a teaching artist with the NJ Writers Project and a five-time grandmother.

Rivka Galchen's first novel, Atmospheric Disturbances, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in June 2008. Her essays and stories have appeared in Zoetrope, The New Yorker, Open City and The New York Times.