February 21: 10-Year Anniversary and Fat Tuesday Fbomb!

Tuesday, February 21 @ 7:30 pm

The Mercury Cafe: 2199 California Street, Jungle Room

It’s the 10-year anniversary of the Fbomb, the first and longest running flash fiction reading series in the country, and we are thrilled to celebrate at our original home with a very special Fat Tuesday reading and release at The Mercury Cafe!

The Mardi Gras season is upon us, celebrating the life, death, and resurrection theater, 40 days in the desert, rising again after the rapture. It reminds us to balance lightly on the edges of change with flair and panache, and it invites us to try on new masks as we celebrate our history and look to our future with hands thrown high, like a gorgeous parade float holding our Fbomb community and rolling into the creative horizons.

Join us live on Tuesday, February 21 from 7:30-10 pm at The Mercury Cafe! With featured readers Jomil Ebro, Krystal Summers, special guest Kona Morris, and your host and Fbomb founder, Nancy Stohlman with a Denver-only pre-release for After the Rapture. Open mic spots are 4 mins and first come first served. We will pass the hat in gratitude for the Mercury Cafe.

Masks encouraged!

Featuring Krystal Summers! 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.

Featuring Jomil Ebro! Jomil Ebro is a professor of Composition, Creative Writing, and Journalism, Philosophy and the Humanities at Arapahoe Community College. He is also an ABD Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature and Consciousness Studies at the University of Iowa, where he also trained at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. At New York University, he received an M.A. in Communication and an M.A. in Cultural Studies. His poetry and critical essays include “Seizure of Happiness, Or, Two Almonds” in Cobra Milk (Fall 2020); “A State of Otonomy: Henry Miller’s Obscene Autobiographical Form” in the Modern Horizons Journal (June 2018); “The Calligraphy of Trees: Towards an Ethics of ‘Mysreading’ in Toni Morrison’s A Mercy” in the Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies Vol. 3, Issue 2 (February 2018); “I’ll-iterate Thinking: Poetry, Perception, and the Dissolution of Center/Periphery Duality” in the Peripheral Matters Journal from the City University of New York (CUNY, Fall 2017); and “The Nearness of Elsewhere: Place and the Ethics of Remembrance in The Poems of Friedrich Hölderlin and Li Po” in the Modern Horizons Journal (June 2012). 

He resides in Golden, Colorado where laughter, verve, and hope come in the form of his partner and son, walking by purple sunsets, steeping two different tea bags, trying to imitate Paul Simon’s guitar playing, and watering the long vineyards of desire. Jomil thinks in all sincerity and without hyperbole that poetry—in particular, the way it can teach us to give a name to the nameless so that it can be thought and sensed more fully—that poetry, as such, can save the world.  

Special guest Kona Morris! Kona Morris is a writer, storyteller, and comedian. She has performed at storytelling events for The Moth, and most recently for the live RISK! show at The Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles. She was a regular on Monday Night Live L.A., a starring cast member of Denver’s Live Drunk History Comedy Troupe, and the Founder and Head Writer of the satirical comic book company Godless Comics. Kona has been featured at events around the world, and her stories have appeared in a variety of publications. https://www.instagram.com/kona_morris/

https://www.youtube.com/@konamorris

https://www.facebook.com/konamorris/

http://konamorris.com/

https://godlesscomics.com/

Hosted by Nancy Stohlman! Nancy Stohlman is the author of six books including After the Rapture (2023), Madam Velvet’s Cabaret of Oddities (2018), The Vixen Scream and Other Bible Stories (2014), The Monster Opera (2013), Searching for Suzi: a flash novel (2009), and Going Short: An Invitation to Flash Fiction (2020), winner of the 2021 Reader Views Gold Award and re-released in 2022 as an audiobook. She is a fan of the short and the strange, and her work has been anthologized widely, appearing in the Norton anthology New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction and The Best Small Fictions 2019, as well as adapted for both stage and screen. She teaches at the University of Colorado Boulder and holds workshops and retreats around the world. Find out more at http://www.nancystohlman.com

May 18: Fbomb Prom! With featured guests SETH, Selah Saterstrom, and host Nancy Stohlman!

Welcome to the second ever Fbomb Prom! This year’s theme: Even Bigger Hair. Come listen to featured readers Selah Saterstrom and SETH! Read a short piece of your own on the open mic (prom theme a plus!). Our reining Prom King and Queen will crown new royalty–everyone is in the running! There may be bad power ballads: Don’t forget your corsages and hairspray!

Wednesday, May 18

7:30-10 pm

The Roxy on Broadway: 554 S Broadway, Denver, CO 80209

FEATURING SETH! Performance Poet SETH, formerly known as Zits Galore, never got to attend his high school prom. While others danced and/or lost their virginity, Zits would pen maudlin poetry, then rearrange the letters so no one would suspect his hetero-erotic fantasies regarding the English language. Since discovering Clearasil, SETH has gone on to author A Black Odyssey, his poetic memoir, and The Perfect Stranger an absurdist satirical novel and winner of two dubious awards for excellence in literary friction. Not content to restrict his literary masturbation between the covers of books, SETH also hosts the Jam Before the Slam every Sunday night at the Mercury Café. With his musical-poetic ensemble, Art Compost & the Word Mechanics, he performs and invites others to perform spoken word to live, improvised music. The weekly jams are streamed on Facebook, with highlights posted on YouTube, both at SETH & Art Compost. Learn more at http://www.wagingart.com.

FEATURING SELAH SATERSTROM!

Selah Saterstrom is the author of five books: RancherIdeal Suggestions: Essays in Divinatory Poetics, SlabThe Meat and Spirit Plan, and The Pink Institution. She lives in Denver with her wife and daughter and is the director of Creative Writing at the University of Denver.

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HOST NANCY STOHLMAN is an award-winning author, performer, and all-around rabble-rouser. Her book Going Short: An Invitation to Flash Fiction (2020), won a 2021 Reader Views Gold Award and was re-released as an audiobook in 2022. Her other books include After the Rapture, (forthcoming 2023), Madam Velvet’s Cabaret of Oddities (2018), and The Vixen Scream and Other Bible Stories (2014), among others. Her work has been anthologized widely, appearing in the Norton anthology New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction and The Best Small Fictions 2019, as well as adapted for both the stage and screen. She teaches at the University of Colorado Boulder and around the world.

F-Bomb Returns Live Friday April 22 @ The Roxy, Hosted by Meg Tuite

The F-Bomb returns to a live venue for the first time in 2022! Join us at The Roxy on Broadway on Friday April 22 from 6-9 PM. Our host will be Meg Tuite, with featured readers Nancy Stohlman, Kona Morris, and Robert Vaughan. 4-minute open mic spots will also be available for others to share their flash fiction with the crowd. Join us in the Speakeasy space, downstairs at The Roxy!

HOST MEG TUITE’s latest collection is ‘WHITE VAN”. She is author of five story collections and five chapbooks. She won the Twin Antlers Poetry award for her poetry collection, Bare Bulbs Swinging and is included in Best of Small Press 2021. She teaches writing retreats and online classes hosted by Bending Genres. She is also the fiction editor of Bending Genres and associate editor at Narrative Magazine.

FEATURED READER ROBERT VAUGHAN is an award-winning author, playwright, and teacher. His books include Microtones, Diptychs + Triptychs + Lipsticks + Dipshits, Addicts & Basements, RIFT, Funhouse, and Askew. His work has been in New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction (W.W. Norton, 2018) and Best Small Fictions 2016 and 2019, his plays have been produced in S.F., N.Y.C., and Milwaukee. He is Editor-in-Chief of Bending Genres.

FEATURED READER NANCY STOHLMAN is an award-winning author, performer, and all-around rabble-rouser. Her book Going Short: An Invitation to Flash Fiction (2020)won a 2021 Reader Views Gold Award and was re-released as an audiobook in 2022. Her other books include After the Rapture, (forthcoming 2023), Madam Velvet’s Cabaret of Oddities (2018), and The Vixen Scream and Other Bible Stories (2014), among others. Her work has been anthologized widely, appearing in the Norton anthology New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction and The Best Small Fictions 2019, as well as adapted for both the stage and screen. She teaches at the University of Colorado Boulder and around the world

FEATURED WRITER KONA MORRIS received her moral guidance from Kermit the Frog. She is from the foggy redwood hub of Humboldt County, Northern California, and she has since lived everywhere from Boston to a remote village in northern Alaska. She was co-founder and editor of Fast Forward Press, as well as the founder and writer of a satirical comic book company called Godless Comics. She has been featured as a writer and editor at literary events and conferences across the country, and her stories, prose poems, and essays have appeared in a variety of publications. Kona teaches letter regurgitation to college students in Denver.

MARCH 17: Host Leah Rogin-Roper and featuring Steven Dunn!

Tuesday, March 17, 7:30 pm, The Mercury Cafe, 2199 California St., Denver

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Host Leah Rogin-Roper!

Leah Rogin-Roper’s essay, “Honk if You Love Real Snow,” was featured in Mountain Gazette’s Best of the West, along with western literary icons like Charles Bowden. Her flash fiction has been performed by Stories on Stage and The Buntport Theater Group. Fiction and nonfiction pieces have been recently published in The Denver Post, Serenity Magazine, Cliterature, and Deep South Review. She is currently cheating on flash fiction to focus on her fourth novel. Please keep her infidelity a secret.

thumb_IMG_0796_-_Version_2Featuring Steven Dunn!
Steven Dunn was born and raised in West Virginia, and after 10 years in the Navy he attended University of Denver for Creative Writing. He will be reading from his novel âPotted Meat,â which was a finalist for the Subito Press 2014 Prose Contest. His work has been published in print in BELOW Art Magazine and University of Denverâs Foothills Journal, as well as online in Words Paint Pictures. Steven is currently working on novel about someone who is writing an ethnography about the military. So far it is exploring and challenging military meta-narratives, with particular attention to perceptions of heroism, terrorism, and patriotism.
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January 14: Host Katharyn Grant and featuring Kathy Fish!

January 14, 2015:

From Katharyn: Please mark you calendar & join me as I host the amazing flash-fiction author Kathy Fish on Jan 14th, for the FBomb Reading Series! I’ll be reading some of Kathy’s stories as well as my own short fiction & open mic slots will be available, so come early to get your slot!

Kathy Fish is the acclaimed author of Together We Can Bury It and Wild Life… here’s what folks are saying about her work: “Kathy Fish’s Together We Can Bury It is a wonder”… “With remarkable precision, Kathy Fish champions the dreamers, believers, and lovers. If you are not one of those, you can trust Kathy Fish to show you the way back to your heart”…”This collection shines with amazing delight.””

Join FB page here

katharHost Katharyn Grant! Katharyn Grant directed, co-produced, and stars in “The One Who Loves You,” a feature-length film which recently screened at over 13 film festivals in the U.S. and Canada! Her writing has appeared in Fast Forward: Mix Tape, Fast Forward: Volume 2, and Monkey Puzzle Magazine.  Her chapbook ,“Interior Life,” features Grant’s own art and poetry; wich the Boston Literary Review called, “an adventure for the eyes and a journey for the spirit.”  She received a degree in creative writing and visual art from the University of Denver

 


kathyFeaturing Kathy Fish! 

Kathy Fish’s stories have been published or are forthcoming in The Lineup: 25 Provocative Women Writers (Black Lawrence Press), Slice, Guernica, Indiana Review, Denver Quarterly, and elsewhere. She is the author of three collections of short fiction: A chapbook of flash fiction in the chapbook collective, A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness: Four Chapbooks of Short Short Fiction by Four Women (Rose Metal Press, 2008), Wild Life (Matter Press, 2011) and Together We Can Bury It (The Lit Pub, 2013). She blogs at http://kathy-fish.com/.

August 13: Host Bryan Jansing and featuring Benjamin Whitmer!

August 13: Theme: “Spaghetti Westerns”

benFeaturing Benjamin Whitmer! Benjamin Whitmer was born and raised on back-to-the-land communes and counterculture enclaves ranging from Southern Ohio to Upstate New York. One of his earliest and happiest memories is of standing by the side of a country road with his mother, hitchhiking to parts unknown. Since then, he’s been a factory grunt, a vacuum salesman, a convalescent, a high-school dropout, a graduate student, a semi-truck loader, an activist, a kitchen-table gunsmith, a squatter, a college professor, a dishwasher, a technical writer and a petty thief. His second novel, Cry Father, is coming in September from Gallery Books.

bryanWith Host Bryan Jansing! Bryan Jansing is an international, award-winning author. Some of his works include, “Like  Clumps of Dried Dirt,” “Bridge Party,” and “A Number on Reality,” in Fast Forward Vol. 3, TheMix Tape (2010), which was the finalist for the Colorado Book Awards. He has also written for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. His book Italy: Beer Country was released April 1.

 

 

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Upcoming 2014 FBOMB DATES

Questions? Email nancystohlman@gmail.com