All good things must come to an end…but we are going out in style! If the Fbomb Reading Series has been part of your journey as a writer, if you have been a host or a feature, if you have been deflowered on our stages or chanted “Virgin!” at some poor unsuspecting writer, if you have come in costume or danced at prom or any of the other 13 YEARS worth of Fbomb shenanigans…then it’s your duty to come celebrate with us one last time. xoxo
Fog! Lasers! Fireworks! Surprises!
Join us at The Merc at 7:30 PM on Tuesday November 19! We’ll still have some open mic spots available (sign-up starts at 7:00 PM), so come share with us!
For our next-to-last F-bomb, we want to feature as many of our former features as we can! While we know this is short notice, we’d love to celebrate the F-bomb with as many of our former featured readers as we can. So if you’re able, please join us on Tuesday October 15 at 7:30 PM at Mercury Cafe and share your work with our lovely audience once again!
Open mic spots will still be available on a first-come first-served basis. We’re always happy to welcome F-bomb virgins! We hope to see you there!
Join us at Mercury Cafe on Tuesday October 15 at 7:30 PM for the October F-bomb! We are winding up the F-bomb Reading Series in November, and are planning a two-month reading celebration to send the F-bomb off with a bang.
Because of the special nature of this event, we will be making a more detailed announcement as we approach that date. Rest assured, you don’t want to miss these readings! Join us for a night of celebration, featuring Special Reader Dakota Yaffe!
SPECIAL READER DAKOTA YAFFE is a lover of the human need for connection, even if she’s too ornery to admit it. A poet, a giant nerd and endlessly fascinated by all things with wheels. Her writing is somewhere between and often both maniacal musings and heart felt pleas for those on the outskirts of society. She is passionate about issues such as mental health, gender, religion and love. She can generally be found on her motorcycle or working on cars. She has ridden solo across the country multiple times on an old Harley she built and takes any chance to disappear into the far reaches of the world. Her writing can be found on https://theunicornandthemonster.wordpress.com/ or on Instagram @theunicornandthemonster
The September FBomb Virgo show! Tuesday 9.17 at 7:30 PM at the Mercury Café …
Join our host Jamey Trotter, longtime & OG FBomber, for an evening of flash fiction entertainment, beauty, and debauchery—featuring Metro State Creative Writing Professor & FBomb virgin, J Eric Miller.
Bring your own flash story to tell—abundant Open Mic slots available (4-minute limit). Admission, as always, is free. Food and bev of all sorts available for purchase. Make it the rare Tuesday date night! Bring your writing posse! Let’s do this!
HOST JAMEY TROTTER is an OG FBomber who writes on the sidelines of his daughters’ soccer practices (if he’s not grading papers or chasing the toddler who enjoys putting himself in harm’s way), and teaches writing and literature at a local college. As the annual Virgo host, he strives to produce a unique experience for a (hopefully) large audience, consisting of students new and former, of friends and family. Set those tacos aside—you can always have Taco Thursday, ya know?—and get your ass down to Fbomb!
FEATURED READER J ERIC MILLER is a professor of Creative Writing at the Metropolitan State University of Denver. His short story collection, Animal Rights and Pornography was published by Soft Skull Press and has since been translated and published in France, Spain, Russia, and Turkey. His novel Decomposition has been translated and published in France, Spain, and Italy. The film rights are also presently under option.
His fiction and personal essays have appeared or are scheduled to appear in a variety of journals, including The Threepenny Review, The Cincinnati Review, American Short Fiction, The North Dakota Quarterly, Able Muse, Eclectica, decomP, Semaphore, Starry Night Review, Clementine Unbound, The/tEmz/Review, Litbreak, The Scarlet Leaf Review, eFiction, Pindelyboyz, Clean Sheets, Manera, Burning Word, Ink Pot, and Outsider Ink. One of them, “Invisible Fish”, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
He is a professor creative writing at Metropolitan State University of Denver, where he is faculty advisor to the MSU Roadrunner Review (https://sites.msudenver.edu/roadrunnerreview/).
Join us on Tuesday August 20 at 7:30 PM at Mercury Cafe for the August F-bomb, hosted by Krystal Summers and featuring Leah Rogin and Erica Hoffmeister. We’re also celebrating book releases for both of our features, so please come out to support these local authors!
This month’s theme is hybridity. Folks can bring their favorite genre-blending/defying pieces, etc., to share as part of our 4-minute open mic spots (sign-up starts around 7:00). You are also welcome to read original work that is not “on theme.”
We hope to see you there!
HOST KRYSTAL SUMMERS is a writer and nanny more magical than Mary Poppins. When she isn’t taking children through chalk paintings, she’s outside somewhere with her dog, relaxing at her home in Denver with her husband, or starting more stories than she finishes. She will be published in the forthcoming Listen to Your Skin anthology from Q Publishing in 2023.
FEATURED PERFORMERLEAH ROGIN enjoys researching fetal chimeras and other ways that people live inside of us. She still writes flash fiction, but lately has been on that novel grindset. Her first published novel, Burying Norma Jeane (Blackwater Press) was released on August 4 and is a mother-daughter road trip novel to liberate Marilyn Monroe’s body from Hugh Hefner’s lecherous grasp in the crypt beside her and also… a biography of Marilyn Monroe written through film reviews? It makes sense when you read it. You can check out her website at Author and educational consultant Leah Rogin
FEATURED PERFORMER ERICA HOFFMEISTER was born and raised in the fragrant orange groves of Southern California and now lives in Denver, where she teaches creative writing and rhetoric. She is the author of three hybrid/poetry collections: the prize-winning Roots Grew Wild(Kingdoms in the Wild Press, 2019); Lived in Bars (Stubborn Mule Press, 2019); and All the Parts You Haven’t Lost(ELJ Editions, 2024). A multi-genre writer, she has earned accolades across genres, including runner’s up for the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition, nomination for a Pushcart Prize in creative nonfiction, as well as multiple Best of the Net nominations for poetry. She’s obsessed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, cross-country road trips, and her two wildling daughters.Learn more at: http://www.ericahoffmeister.com/.
Come out to the Merc to see Jo Rodriguez and listen to their music! Open mic slots are also available for those who want to read a 3-4 minute piece. Open for poetry, flash fiction, music, comedy, etc. Open Mic sign-up starts at 7:00, show starts at 7:30ish on Tuesday July 16. See you there!
HOST KIT TARA writes fiction and poetry of the fantastic and sensual imagination. She’s been published in several magazines, and has several independently-published stories out too. Currently, she writes mostly erotica, sci-fi, or fantasy (or all three!) on Medium.com. When not writing, Kit binges on sci-fi shows, reads, and cuddles with her four cats.
FEATURED PERFORMER JO RODRIGUEZ is a nonbinary trans woman first, and a singer songwriter second. Adjacent to both folk and punk, they write songs about mental illness, love, loss, transition, and sometimes cigarettes. Their pronouns are she, they, and it.
Ruby didn’t appreciate him, but we sure do. For one night only, FBomb celebrates the bearded storyteller with a night of flash fiction stories written to the theme of everything Kenny. Join us for this celebration on Tuesday June 18 at 7:30 PM at Mercury Cafe!
Pick a song title, any title, and then write something in the 4 minute range inspired by that title to read during the open mic. (Open mic spots are many things, but they’re not infinite. Get there on time to sign up. Also, when we say 4 minutes max, we mean it this time. Anybody attempting to go long will most likely be interrupted and politely played off the stage to sounds of a real life band playing The Flintstones theme song)
Islands In The Stream
We’ve Got Tonight
Lady
Daytime Friends and Nighttime Lovers
The Gambler
Coward Of The County
…………….the list is endless. Unless you end it and don’t want to write something inspired by the song titles of Kenny Rogers. If you want to read something else, that’s fine. It’s an expensively free county. Read what you want, but our featured writer Jonathan Montgomery will most definitely be reading on theme, to the soothing sounds of Kenny Rogers music, backed by The KGB Band minus the K, aka a new combination tentatively titled Kenny’s Roger.
Hosted by Rob Geisen
HOST ROB GEISEN is the author of Beautiful Graveyards, Paper Thin, Avenge Me, The Aftermatch etc, and the forthcoming I Don’t Think This Is Going to Help. He plays guitar and broken-romantic for the pop-poetry band Girls Just Wanna Have Us. Once upon a time he was the co-host of a weekly open mic series that took place at Album’s Bistro, The Burnt Toast, and The No Name Bar in Boulder, Colorado on The Hill. Currently, he’s focused on writing science fiction novels and learning everything there is to learn about the 1979 Disney classic The Black Hole.
Join us on Tuesday April 16 at Mercury Cafe for the April F-bomb at 7:30 PM. Our host will be long-time F-bomber Leah Rogin and will feature Leah Scott and Suzi Q. Smith. Plus, 4-minute open mic slots will be available for those who want to share their own original work. Please join us if you can!
As a special note, we will not be in our typical space at Mercury Cafe this month; instead, we’ll be in the Rose Room, the main restaurant/bar space.
HOST LEAH ROGIN’s first published novel, Burying Norma Jeane, is coming out on Marilyn Monroe’s 98th birthday, June 1, 2024, with Blackwater Press. She is interested in what a world where Norma Jeane lived to be 98 would look like, among other time / space preoccupations. She lives in the mountains west of Denver where she wrangles children and other creatures.
FEATURED READER LEAH SCOTT is a writer, editor, and translator from Denver. She spent several years as senior poetry editor of F(r)iction and currently works on research that explores reproductive health activism through the experiences of feminists in Latin America. You can read some of her poems in Pacifica Literary Review.
Join us at Mercury Cafe on Tuesday March 19 at 7:30 PM to celebrate the March F-bomb! We’ll be hosted by KB Jensen, with featured reader Helen Starbuck. Plus, 4-minute open mic spots available for all those who want to share their work. Join us if you can!
This month’s (optional) theme: Strong Women, Murder and Mayhem!
HOST K.B. JENSEN is an award-winning author, with two novels, Painting With Fire, an artistic murder mystery, and A Storm of Stories, which veers literary and handles love, craziness and impossibility. Her recent collection of short stories, Love and Other Monsters in the Dark, is out. K.B. lives in Littleton with her family and rescue mutt. She enjoys skiing and writing poetry. Her work has appeared in Progenitor, Cherry Magazine, New Feathers Anthology, Poetry Potion, and more. A former crime reporter and journalist, K.B. shifted to the publishing world in 2014, and is a senior publishing consultant and youth writing camp director for My Word Publishing.
FEATURED READER HELEN STARBUCK, no relation to the coffee bunch, is a Colorado native, former OR nurse/nurse editor, and the author of the award-winning Annie Collins Mystery Series and standalone romantic suspense novels Legacy of Secrets, Finding Alex, The Woman He Used to Know, and The Killer Without A Face. She loves mysteries, suspense, romance, and any book that is well written. She’s a huge fan of books with independent, strong, women characters and, as Neil Gaiman says, “…stories where women save themselves.” When not writing you can find her ballroom dancing and gardening.
Join us on Tuesday February 20 at 7:30 PM at Mercury Cafe for the Anti-Valentine’s F-Bomb! Our host will be Nicole Servino, with featured reader Ella Toupin. Plus, 4-minute open mic spots available on a first-come first-served basis. Come share your own stories of good love gone bad!
HOST NICOLE SERVINO is a passionate educator who brings over two decades of experience as a Professor of English to the realm of academia. A graduate of Naropa University, where she cultivated a deep love for language and literature, Nicole has dedicated her career to inspiring students and fostering a profound understanding of the written word.
Outside of academia, Nicole remains an avid reader and writer, constantly seeking new avenues for personal and intellectual growth. Exploring contemporary literature, she finds solace and inspiration. Her favorite font is Georgia.
Nicole holds a deep belief in the transformative power of education and remains committed to empowering students to become thoughtful, engaged citizens of the world.
(Special thanks to ChatGPT for writing this!)
FEATURED READER ELLA TOUPIN is a writer, artist, and student based in Denver, Colorado. They began writing fiction at the encouragement of their parents at a very early age, and found poetry soon after. Ella is the executive director of Stain’d Arts, a non-profit working to provide paid platforms to local artists, writers and creators.
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