AWP 2023 Offsite Reading: Sarah Gerard’s “The Butter House”

Feb 5, 2023

AWP 2023 Offsite Launch Event & Reading

Sarah Gerard’s The Butter House

6:30pm, Friday, March 10th, 2023

NEKO Cat Cafe

About the Event

Join us in Seattle for an intimate cat-themed launch event for Sarah Gerard’s new chapbook, The Butter House. Sarah will be reading an excerpt and signing copies. Paperbacks ($12.00) and limited-edition hardcovers ($20.00) will be available for purchase during the event. The cafe also offers wine, beer, coffee, tea, snacks, and merchandise for sale.

NEKO Cat Cafe in downtown Seattle is a 13-minute (0.5 mile) walk from the Convention Center, or a 6-minute ride on the #49 bus. NEKO is a sanctuary for rescue cats. Through relationships with area shelters, the cafe showcases hard-to-adopt cats in this unique cafe setting. With the exception of a few permanent residents, most cats at NEKO are adoptable. Please contact editors@coniumreview.com if you have accessibility needs that may require accommodations.

Pre-order a limited-edition hardcover,

and claim your spot in the cat room!

This main cafe area is free and open to the public. We will be reading and signing in this public space, and all are welcome. However, the cat room has limited capacity and controlled access. This ensures the cats have a safe environment without overstimulation or unnecessary stress. We have reserved time in the cat room for those who are interested. We’re holding these spaces for people who pre-order the limited-edition hardcover version of Sarah’s chapbook. The cost of the hardcover is $20. Copies are will not be mailed; you can expect the book to be ready and waiting for you at the event (along with several kitties).

Sarah Gerard will be reading and signing books at 6:30pm. Choose 6:00pm if you’d like to access the cat room before the reading. Choose 7:00pm if you’d like to spend time with the kitties afterward. Before entering the cat room, NEKO will ask you to sign a liability waiver.

Hardcover Pre-Order & 6:00pm "Cat Room"

Hardcover Pre-Order & 7:00pm "Cat Room"

About the Book

The Butter House follows a woman who moves from New York to a Florida bungalow with her boyfriend. She navigates contradictory landscapes of love and possession, nature and built-environment, empathy and sympathy. She becomes a surrogate caretaker for a colony of feral cats. She grows a garden. She interrogates what it means to care for somebody or something. This is a delicate story, but it chooses deliberate moments to scratch and bite with the ferocity of a territorial alley cat.

About the Author

Sarah Gerard (she/they) is the author of the novels True Love (Harper, 2020) and Binary Star (Two Dollar Radio, 2015) and the essay collection Sunshine State (Harper, 2017). They are the recipient of a 2021 Lambda Literary Dr. James Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize. Sarah’s short stories, essays, and interviews have appeared in The New York Times, T Magazine, Granta, McSweeney’s, The Believer, Vice, Electric Literature, and the anthologies We Can’t Help It If We’re From Florida, One Small Blow Against Encroaching Totalitarianism, Tampa Bay Noir, Erase the Patriarchy, and I Know What’s Best For You: Stories on Reproductive Freedom.

Book cover for Sarah Gerard's "The Butter House"

Editor Update: James R. Gapinski’s 2018 Book Tour

Aug 21, 2018

Join The Conium Review‘s managing editor, James R. Gapinski, as he celebrates the release of Edge of the Known Bus Line (Etchings Press, University of Indianapolis). Later this month, James embarks on a five-state reading tour, with stops in Seattle, Milwaukee, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Portland.

The tour kicks off on August 29th with a featured reading at the Two Hour Transport series in Seattle. Next stop is Boswell Books in Milwaukee. Then James visits Chicago for a conversation with former contributor and recent contest judge Maryse Meijer, author of Heartbreaker (FSG) and Northwood (Black Balloon Publishing). In Minneapolis, James reads with local and visiting authors Maya Beck, Madeline Reding, Kathryn Savage, and Erin Sharkey. Finally, James returns home for a reading in Portland. Full book tour details, Facebook links, and other information is available on James R. Gapinski’s author page.

Congrats to Our Best Small Fictions 2016 Nominees

Jan 26, 2016

Last week, we mailed off our nominees for the Queen’s Ferry Press anthology, Best Small Fiction 2016. We’re proud to officially announce our selections. There were so many good stories to choose from. Congratulations to the five nominees:

“Pitcher of Cream,” by Caitlin Scarano (from The Conium Review Online Compendium)
“Shampoo,” by Ingrid Jendrzejewski (from The Conium Review: Vol. 4)
“Camisole,” by Tamara K. Walker (from The Conium Review: Vol. 4)
“Clown Boutique Fairy Tale,” by Sarah Mitchell-Jackson (from The Conium Review Online Compendium)
“This is Great But You Don’t Need It,” by John Englehardt (from The Conium Review Online Compendium and published as a micro-chap for AWP 2015)

About the Nominees:

Caitlin Scarano is a poet in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee PhD creative writing program. She was a finalist for the 2014 Best of the Net Anthology and the winner of the 2015 Indiana Review Poetry Prize, judged by Eduardo Corral. She has two poetry chapbooks. This winter, she will be an artist in residence at the Hinge Arts Residency program in Fergus Falls and the Artsmith’s 2016 Artist Residency on Orcas Island.

Tamara K. Walker dreams of irrealities among typewriter ribbons, stuffed animals and duct tape flower barrettes. She resides near Boulder, Colorado with her wife/life partner and blogs irregularly about writing and literature at http://tamarakwalker.wordpress.com. She may also be found online at http://about.me/tamara.kwalker. Her writing has previously appeared or is forthcoming in The Cafe Irreal, A cappella Zoo, Melusine, Apocrypha and Abstractions, Gay Flash Fiction, Identity Theory, a handful of poetry zines, and several themed print anthologies published by Kind of a Hurricane Press.

Ingrid Jendrzejewski studied creative writing and English literature at the University of Evansville before going on to study physics at the University of Cambridge. She has soft spots for go, cryptic crosswords, and the python programming language, but these days spends most of her time trying to keep up with a delightfully energetic toddler. Once in a very great while, she adds a tiny something to www.ingridj.com and tweets at @LunchOnTuesday.

Sarah Mitchell-Jackson is a novelist and a short story writer. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in The Critical Pass Review and Really System. Her debut novel, Ashes, will be out this year published by Blue Moon Publishers. You can read more of her work at www.smitchjack.wordpress.com.

John Englehardt’s stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Sycamore Review, The Stranger, Monkeybicycle, The Monarch Review, and Furlough Magazine. He won the 2014 Wabash Prize in Fiction, as well as The Stranger‘s A&P fiction contest. He’s a recent graduate of University of Arkansas’ MFA program, and now lives and works in Seattle.

Editors & Contributors at “Lit Crawl Seattle”

Oct 20, 2015

Lit Crawl Seattle is a couple days away (Oct. 22nd). Ahead of the event, the Lit Crawl organizers are promoting the #whatsyourcrawl hashtag. If you’re going to Lit Crawl, remember to Tweet, post on Facebook, e-mail, post creepy notes around your apartment building, whatever. A contributor and a couple of our editors share their Lit Crawl schedules below:

Chelsea Werner-Jatzke’s crawl (editorial director of The Conium Review):

6:00pm, “A Salty Reading” presented by the awesome folks of of APRIL at Hugo House.
7:00pm, “Good Sports” at Vermillion Art Gallery and Bar, where I’m reading with Matt Kelsey and Jay McAleer.
8:00pm, back to Hugo House for “Jacks-of-All-Trades,” where Gary Lilley performs with his band, Norf Cackalack, Adam Boehmer reads some poems, and closing the set, Freeway Park will rock it out. Then off to the after party at Fred Wildlife Refuge.

James R. Gapinski’s crawl (managing editor of The Conium Review):

Probably going to The James Franco Review reading at 6:00pm (though I might do “A Salty Reading” at Hugo House too; still debating on the 6:00pm time slot).
Then I’m going to the Future Tense Books event, “Welcome to the Instant Future” at 7:00pm at the Raygun Lounge.
I’m one of the readers at “Lit Level Up,” 8:00pm at the Pine Box. And naturally, closing out the night with the Fred Wildlife Refuge after party.

John Englehardt’s crawl (contributor with his story “This Is Great But You Don’t Need It“):

I’m going to City Arts’ “Use Yr Words” at 6pm (Quenton Baker!).
“Flashers” at the Sorrento Hotel at 7pm (Mattilda Sycamore!).
“Lit Level Up” at the Pine Box at 8pm (James Gapinski!).
Then to the dance party at Fred’s Wildlife Refuge.

If you’re out-and-about on October 22nd, say “hi,” Tweet at us, share your crawl, and purchase a copy of The Conium Review: Vol. 3 during the after party. Find the entire Lit Crawl Seattle schedule here.

Chelsea Werner-Jatzke and James R. Gapinski to read at Lit Crawl Seattle

Sep 16, 2015

The Lit Crawl Seattle 2015 schedule is live, and two of The Conium Review‘s editors will be reading at the event. The October 22nd Lit Crawl features free readings by over 65 authors at bars and pubs (naturally, there are bookstore, library, and other artsy venues too) throughout Seattle’s First Hill and Capitol Hill neighborhoods.

Chelsea Werner-Jatzke reads at Vermillion (1508, 11th Ave.) as part of the sports-themed “Good Sports” reading from 7:00 to 7:45pm. This event’s other readers are Jay McAleer and Matt Kelsey.

James R. Gapinski reads at The Pine Box (1600 Melrose Ave.) as part of the video game-themed “Lit Level Up” reading from 8:00 to 8:45pm. Also reading are Darren Davis, Rachel Springer, and Frances Dinger.

The full Lit Crawl Seattle schedule is available here. We hope to see some Conium readers and writers out-and-about, so don’t be shy if you dig our journal (and if you hate us, you could still heckle one of the readings).

Follow Lit Crawl Seattle on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr for additional news about the venues, readers, etc.