JUNE 25 READING

GEN XYZ
Thursday, June 25, 2009, 7:30pm
@ Happy Ending
302 Broome Street (between Forsyth & Eldridge)
FREE * FREE * FREE
212-334-9676; www.happyendinglounge.com

FEATURING NICK FLYNN (Another Bullshit Night in Suck City; Blind Huber)
+ Readings by SUNG J. WOO + JUSTIN TAYLOR
+ Monologue by actress HALLEY FEIFFER
+ Comics by poet/illustrator BIANCA STONE



For this literary evening, poet (and proud Gen-Xer) April Naoko Heck invites writers to share their original work, and to reflect on how Gen-X culture (art and literature of the 1980s & 1990s, when Gen-Xers came of age) changed their lives. GEN XYZ seeks to create new ties among emerging and established writers, and to spark dialogue about what exactly defines a generation. Expect delicious drinks, comedy, and above all, great writing.

ABOUT YOUR READERS
Nick Flynn's "Another Bullshit Night in Suck City" (Norton, 2004), won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award, was shortlisted for Frances Prix Femina, and has been translated in 13 languages. He is also the author of two books of poetry, "Some Ether" (Graywolf, 2000) and "Blind Huber" (Graywolf, 2002), for which he received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and The Library of Congress. One semester a year he teaches at the University of Houston, and he spends the rest of the year elsewhere.

Sung J. Woo's debut novel, "Everything Asian" (St. Martin's Press, 2009), was just published this April. Short stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, McSweeney’s, and KoreAm Journal.

Justin Taylor's first book, a collection of stories entitled "Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever," will be published in February by Harper Perennial. He teaches English 101 at Rutgers, and is a regular contributor to HTMLGiant: the internet literature magazine blog of the future. http://www.justindtaylor.net/

Actress Halley Feiffer 's films include "You Can Count on Me," "Stephanie Daley," "The Squid and the Whale" and "Margot at the Wedding," and the upcoming films "The Messenger" and "Fighting Fish." She also guest starred on the HBO show Flight of the Conchords in the Season Two episode Wingmen.

Poet and illustrator Bianca Stone is the curator of The Ladder Poetry Reading Series, which couples established writers with emerging writers, and editor of The Whitman’s Poetry Sampler. Her poems have most recently appeared in Two Review, The Patterson Literary Review, and Fou. (Below, "Pantoum for the Imperceptible")

















MORE ABOUT GEN X
Can you believe older GEN X-ers (ie, me) went to college when email was new and cell phones unheard of? In the U.S. Gen X can be broadly defined as individuals born 1961-1981. Who were born in the shadow of the Cold War and nuclear arms race. Who grew up under the regimes of Reagan and Bush Sr. Who statistically were the most educated generation to date. Who made less money than their fathers. Who remember Michael Jackson's hair catching fire in a Pepsi commercial. Who lost their virginity the same decade they got their first AIDS test. Who survived 80s materialism & drug culture, the 90s dot-com boom and bust, the 00s super bust, and now seek more lasting fulfillment through spirituality, art, yoga, and probiotic yogurt. In this search for meaning, GEN X shakes hands with GEN Y & Z, and perhaps discover that generations are as rich in similarities as in differences.

GEN X ICONS: A SHORT LIST
In literature: Bright Lights, Big City (Jay McInnerney); Less Than Zero (Brett Easton Ellis); Generation X: Tales of an Accelerated Culture (Douglas Coupland), Ghost World (Daniel Clowes)

In film: Less Than Zero, Singles, Reality Bites, Before Sunrise, Pump up the Volume, Heathers, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Say Anything, High Fidelity. * In Music: The Smiths, New Order, Echo & the Bunnymen, Sonic Youth, Dead Milkmen, Modern Lovers, The Psychedlic Furs, REM, De la Soul, Nirvana. Mixed tapes. 45s. * In Media: MTV's "120 Minutes," Sassy, music video channels that played music videos, VJs; "My So-Called Life," "The Real World: San Francisco," the launch of Details, the first seasons of "90210". * In Hollywood: Matt Dillon, Robert Downey, Jr., Ethan Hawke, Andrew McCarthy, Molly Ringwald, Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Emilio Estevez, Ali Sheedy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Eric Stoltz, James Spader.