Mike Karpa

Tahoma Literary Review has done me the honor of publishing a new piece, Because of Course: A Prize-wining Story (yes, that’s the title–it’s meta-fiction, I think), in which I rant against literary fiction–bridges are more exciting when they are burning—but then I succumb to niceness. You do have to pay to read this one, but for your $3.99 (ePub, PDF, Kindle) you get a whole magazine. (The print is $10.99 and lovely, in my opinion.) My bit is fairly deep into it. Woo hoo!

It’s more with trepidation than excitement that I say this, but I am going to Bread Loaf Writers Conference in August. It was exciting to be accepted in fiction, and then to also get accepted in non-fiction, but it came with a dose of my version of imposter syndrome: non-belongers syndrome. So what better reason to go than to get over that. Of course, I may be bringing it on myself, because I submitted a literary piece to get in, but sent a genre piece–gay SciFi romance–to actually be read and workshopped. We’ll see how that goes. Our workshop leader is Ana Menéndez, and the workshop fellow is Deepak Unnikrishnan, and hey, now I am getting excited.

I am delighted to announce that Play on Words has said yes to a shorter (considerably shorter) version of “Because of Course: A Prize-winning Story,” a meta-fiction piece that is forthcoming from Tahoma Literary Review this summer. That means I get to sit in the audience and enjoy someone else–an actor–read the piece. I will post the details when they are available, but I am thinking it will be at Cafe Stritch in San Jose.

And for those of you who did not make it, here is the video of Thomas Times reading Make a Muscle at the recent sell-out Play on Words show at the San José Museum of Art! On Estonian Independence Day, no less.

Play on Words–the series in San José that stages readings by professional actors of short pieces of fiction, memoir, essay and reportage–has accepted Make a Muscle, which appeared in Tin House last year, for their performance in New Terrains, an ongoing series at the San José Museum of Art. The reading is scheduled for February 24 at 2pm, and the venue is large and reportedly on the verge of selling out! (My reader is Thomas Times.) Here is PoW’s write-up of the event.

Join San Jose’s premiere literary performance arts series on Sunday, February 24 from 2-4 pm to watch professional actors perform original fiction, nonfiction, theater and poetry by 15 Bay Area writers. This unique show includes storytelling from Iran, Ireland, South Korea, India, Mexico, Serbia, China and the United States. Learn more at playonwordsanjose.com.

Featuring work by:

MAIREAD BRODIE
ARCADIA CONRAD
KEENAN FLAGG
MIKE KARPA
BECKY KLING
KSENIA LAKOVIC
ALLISON LANDA
MICHELLE SUZANN MYERS
TONY PRESS
MICHELLE QIAO
ANNIQUA RANA
CHRISTINA SHON
LAURA DOMINGO SHORT
ANJELA VILLARREALL RATLIFF

San José Museum of Art
110 South Market Street
San José CA

I am a late addition, and very excited to be one of the three readers in On The Cusp’s January 30 reading at the Bindery on Haight Street. I am reading an excerpt from my Japan novel–Criminals–and another piece of straight-up memoir. Here’s the write-up from Alison Landa, who makes it all happen:

The events that define us aren’t always immediately apparent. That’s the idea behind On the Cusp, a quarterly reading series that seeks to explore the meaning of life’s smaller moments … and their lasting significance.

Featuring Sarah Kobrinsky, Marian Palaia, and Mike Karpa!

Sarah Kobrinsky was the 2013-2015 Poet Laureate of Emeryville, CA. Her collection, Nighttime on the Other Side of Everything, is forthcoming by New Rivers Press (Autumn 2019). Her poems and stories have appeared in Magma Poetry, Eleven Eleven, Monkeybicycle, 100 Word Story, Fjords Review among many others. She was born in Canada, raised in North Dakota, seasoned in England, and tempered in California. Sarah and her husband have a handmade dinnerware company called Jered’s Pottery. She is also a perinatal yoga instructor.

Marian Palaia is the author of “The Given World,” named by Kirkus a best novel of 2015 and nominated for, among other awards, The PEN/Bingham Prize, the Saroyan International Prize for Fiction, and the VCU/Cabell Prize. She lives in San Francisco and in Missoula, Montana with her Mongolian Barking Shepherd, Tupelo. Her second book, “Wild Things,” is forthcoming.

Mike Karpa is a queer SF writer shifting from deeply felt literary writing to meaningless escapism. Briefly a DoJ staff translator, his biggest work victory is surviving as a freelancer for over thirty years, which may be why full-time employment sets his mind spinning murder-mystery plots. His memoir and/or short fiction has been published in Tin House, Sixfold, and elsewhere and been selected for Memoir Monday, a weekly newsletter co-curated by Narratively, Tin House and other literary magazines. A new story is apparently forthcoming in Tahoma Literary Review.

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Admission for this event is $5 in advance or $10 at the door. Advance tickets can be ordered at this link: https://thecusp.bpt.me/.

Please note: this is an all ages event. The bar opens at 7pm, and event begins at 7:30pm.

I actually don’t know which of two pieces I’ll be reading–“Chili Dog” or “Make A Muscle.” Suggestions encouraged. The reading starts at 1PM as part of NaNoWriMo festivities at the San Mateo Public Library in downtown San Mateo.

The Castro Coop is at it again, repurposing works of fiction in search of alternate facts. Join us on October 20, 2018.

https://www.facebook.com/events/534878030318291/

Look who’s on board for Flash Fiction Forum October 10th! Pretty great company to be in…

OCTOBER 10, LINEUP
1. Tania Martin, “Apollo and Aphrodite Cut the Line”
2. Kimy Martinez, “Before I Met My Mom”
3. Ann Harleman “History for the First Time”
4. Al Preciado, “The Insistence of Memory”
5. Donnelle C. McGee, “Hey You” from forthcoming book
6. Deborah Kennedy, “Natural Revenge”
7. Mike Karpa, “Chili Dog,”
8. Carol Park, “Round the Table”
9. Nancy Devine, “In the Beginning, There Was Risk”
10. Allison Landa, “Gravedigger”
11. Claire Hawkins, “Percy Jones”

I get to join my friends at Flash Fiction Forum again, 7-9PM, October 10, at Works/San José, art and performance center, 365 Market St in SJ, which has no connection to the Wuchang uprising of 1911, but I can’t help noting is on Double Ten Day. I haven’t head who else is reading yet, but I’m reading a new piece, “Chili Dog”.