The do-it-yourself ethic is one of the great legacies of the punk movement. For over forty years, people have been creating their own zines — self-published magazines, a subject Djake Carroll explores in his short documentary, Zinester: The Art of Individualism in the Era of Mass Media, which will have…
Somewhere between the first time a cave man chiseled an idea into stone and an early adopter tweeted a phrase in 140 characters, the zine was born. Zines are self-published magazines, often hand-drawn, collaged, typed on old-fashioned typewriters or scrawled in Sharpie, pen and pencil. The contents vary: Some are…
It’s not too late to travel this summer. The best thing about books is that they can take you anywhere — and you never have to leave your house. They challenge your mind or simply tickle it, and like the best travels, memories stay with you long after the trip…
This week’s literary picks bounce between a promising novelist’s debut, a pop star’s foray into fiction and a bookish wine tasting; read on for all the details. See also: The ten best comedy events in Denver this August…
This week in the local lit world, you can learn everything you ever needed to know about sleep, laugh it up at a book-signing by a comedian who’s taken to writing young-adult novels, or watch authors’ stories come alive onstage — and still have time to go home and get…
As Fulcrum Publishing approaches its thirtieth anniversary, the Golden-based publishing house is intensifying its new focus on educational graphic novels, which teachers around the country are using with more regularity to get students interested in reading. The topics of these publications range from endangered ocean species to an unconventional history…
There’s still plenty of time left for summer reading, and for inspiration this week you can hear authors of popular mystery and pop-culture series. Or you can bone up on your wedding-photography skills just in time to hop on what could be a burgeoning local market for same-sex ceremonies. Here…
Baby, it’s hot out there, but that shouldn’t keep anyone from seeking out new words, whether spoken aloud or written in books. Local slam poets are entering the final stretch before heading off to this year’s national competitions, literary poets are still staging readings and authors are bringing their juicy…
It’s high summer as we head into the Fourth of July holiday, when author tours take a break — just like the rest of us. But in the meantime, we can hear poetry to raise a fist to, goof off literarally or see an art show that celebrates books and…
Whether you’re looking for summer reading, poetic inspiration or just a good time with a side of culture, there’s a literary event for you this week. Read on and we’ll tell you where the poets are rhyming and the hottest authors are reading. See also: Ed Ward’s “Stories, Stories, Bring…
Paint the town read! As LitFest 2014 continues at Lighthouse Writer’s Workshop, we caught up with award-winning author Antonya Nelson, who’ll be teaching two classes this week and participate in a free reading on Thursday, June 19. Nelson teaches creative writing at the University of Houston and is the author…
History can build and destroy nations, create and end wars and help society wrangle with ethical obligations and failures. But when teachers reduce it to an endless scroll of names and dates that have been stripped of context, history loses its power. The Smithsonian Institution’s Richard Kurin is on a…
We’ve written before about the strange career of Denver cabbie and secret author Gary Reilly, who wrote more than two dozen novels over decades but never tried to publish any of them before his death from cancer in 2011, at the age of 61. That long silence is now being…
Abracadabra: She’s out of the box with a wand of her own. Erica Sodos is a magician, psychic entertainer and motivational speaker currently in residence at the Mercury Cafe. In advance of her May 31 show there, The Magic Within: Psychic Explorations in Telepathy and Empathy, we chatted with Sodos…
The graphic novel Wild Ocean dives into the plight of endangered animals by giving readers a glimpse of life in the deep sea. The collection of stories looks at twelve sea creaters that are dangerously close to extinction, from sea turtles to albatrosses.The book, edited by Matt Dembicki, was created…
Washington Park is the focus of a major brewhaha right now. Last week Denver City Councilman Chris Nevitt, who represents the area, sent a letter to the Denver Department of Parks and Recreation asking for a six-month alcohol ban at the park due to abuse and “bad behavior.” The only…
When he hit rock bottom, DIY zine-maker and literary adventurer Justin Hocking started taking evening jaunts from New York City to Rockaway Beach, where he surfed the waves under the moonlit sky. He defied death; he navigated trauma; he searched the shadows of his soul. This period of self-exploration launched…
Was it really dozen years ago that Trista Sutter, a pediatric physical therapist moonlighting as a Miami Heat dancer, had her heart broken on the first season of The Bachelor and then became the very first Bachelorette, falling for poetry-writing firefighter Vail Ryan Sutter and getting married on national TV?…
As an obituary writer, Bruce Weber confronts mortality more than most. So he decided to bid farewell to middle age by taking a cross-country bike trip which he used to reflect on aging and mortality in his memoir: Life Is a Wheel: Love, Death, Etc., and a Bike Trip Across…
Jovan Mays, the first-ever poet laureate of Aurora, wants his poetry to capture the voices of the city’s people, who first inspired him to write and perform poetry. An Aurora native and graduate of Smoky Hills High School, Mays has been invested in the Aurora community since he was a…
On Monday, Governor John Hickenlooper announced the creation of the Sand Creek Massacre Commemoration Commission, designed to further understanding of that dark chapter in Colorado history as the 50th anniversary of the Sand Creek Massacre approaches on November 29, 1964. And that process just got a big boost when Columbia…
Your story matters, says poet Yosimar Reyes, who denies the dominant narrative of United States citizenship, that “real Americans” are blue-eyed, blond-haired, white, upper-middle class men fully assimilated into the American Dream. This isn’t historical; this isn’t reality, he says:This is a nation founded on immigrants. Living in the United…
