My short story, The Hurricanes of 2000 Come to Me as Lovers, just went live at Vortical Magazine, if you'd like to take a peek...

This is last, last, last minute notice, but if anyone is in the Riverside area tonight and would like to audition for the concert I am organizing (Poetic Justice: An Evening of Spoken Word and Music in Opposition to the Death Penalty), please join us at St. Andrew's Newman Center, 105 W Big Springs Rd, Riverside at 6:30pm. The concert will take place at White Park in Riverside on Saturday, July 24th, 7:30pm. It should be an amazing evening. We're looking for poets/spoken word artists/singers/musicians whose work addresses issues of social justice. If you have any questions or are interested in participating but can't make it to the audition, please email me at gaylebrandeis at hotmail dot com.

Hope to see some of you either next week in the Bay Area, or next Saturday at my reading at Antioch University in Culver City. I plan to read some new work that night--either from my memoir-in-progress, or my novel-in-progress (whichever I have the guts to share.)

I'm going to be a proud mama now and share some cool news. My 10 year old daughter Hannah's play, The Evilest Monk (a madcap epic), was awarded an Honorable Mention in the National Young Playwrights Competition sponsored by Stephen Sondheims Young Playwrights Inc. Her play was one of 25 Honorable Mentions selected from 300 entries. She's very excited. It's fun to have another writer in the family!

I am in love with the alphabet. My graduate seminar at Antioch was titled "Singing the Alphabet" and was all about the history of those 26 letters. We studied the evolution of different letters, wrote alphabet poems, discussed our favorite letters, and ate alphabet cookies. Great fun.

Over at Maud Newton (one of my favorite literary blogs) today is a link to an exhibit of artists' alphabet books (I am also in love with book art). What makes the link even more delicious is that the title of the exhibit is Abecedarium, which is very close to the title of the first poem (Abecedarian) in my chapbook Dictionary Poems.

It will be fun to read from Dictionary Poems at Book Passage on the 30th; I had such a great time on my book tour, but I'm a little tired of hearing myself talk about my novel (on the other hand, if you have any questions send them my way, and if you have a book group that wants to discuss my novel, I'm happy to join you in person or by phone!)

Bay Area people--I will be up in your beautiful neck of the woods in a couple of weeks.

Tuesday, June 29, I will be hosting a Fruitflesh event in the Ferry Building at Market and Embarcadero in SF from 11am-noon. It will take place outside the new Book Passage, within the heart of the farmers market. I've wanted to do a farmers market event since Fruitflesh first came out two years ago; it will be amazing to be surrounded by tons of fresh fruit. Thanks to Book Passage and HarperSanFrancisco for putting the event together so quickly!

Wednesday, June 30, 7pm, I will be reading from my chapbook, Dictionary Poems, at the original Corte Madera Book Passage. I will be one of many Pudding House poets reading that evening. It should be a fun night (I am very excited to meet Jennifer Bosveld, the powerhouse behind Pudding House!)

Hope to see some of you there!

I'm back from my tour--12 wild, inspiring, exhausting days. It was amazing to reconnect with Chicago, to spend time with my family, to see people from my past (my third grade science teacher! My best friend from elementary school!), to meet wonderful people along the way.

I can't believe how much I packed into my time away--I spoke at my high school (kind of ironic, since I rarely spoke when I was a student there!), taught a workshop at my dad's work, signed autographs next to Kathie Lee Gifford (!), saw Bill Clinton speak (wasn't it nice when we had a president who knew how to put a sentence together?!), laughed my ass off at a breakfast with Jon Stewart, snagged bunches of books, and bumped into just the right people at just the right time. Thanks to all of you whose paths I crossed!

I'm going to be a guest on Writers on Writing with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett tomorrow (June 10) at 5:30pm PST. You can listen online at KUCI. Be sure to tune in at 5, though--my fabulous friend Caroline Leavitt is going to be the first guest on the show. Her most recent books are Girls In Trouble and Coming Back to Me. She writes with so much heart, so much honesty. We just found out we're going to be on the show together (too bad we can't actually see each other--she lives in New Jersey, and we're both calling in.) My life has been full of fun coincidences lately. I'm eager to see what will happen next!