AWP | A Very Important Karaoke Party
Don’t miss A Very Important Karaoke Party, the living musical lit mag, a collaboration between songwriters and audience singers for a night of belting parody songs about being a writer. We’ll commiserate, celebrate, and sing to works by an incredible list of writers, from Steve Almond to Vanessa Hua.
Singers from terrible to not very good are invited to arrive early to reserve a song, such as Rihanna’s “Stay” reimagined as “I Want You to Pay,” and Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline,” as a song about deadlines called “Shit, Need More Time.”
Duets and groups are encouraged. Middle-school-style spur-of-the-moment choreography would be incredible. Don’t want to sing? We need you as a go-go dancer!
Will there be wigs and costumes? Perhaps. Tambourines? Maybe. Shameless displays of tuneless talent? You bet your ass.
Your host and living lit mag editor will be former Made at Hugo House Fellow, author of Welcome to the Writer’s Life, and shower song screamer, Paulette Perhach.
This event is sponsored by A Very Important Meeting, an online space to strengthen your focus and prioritize your writing among like-minded creatives. It puts concentration, productivity, and community, the essential building blocks of a thriving writer’s life, right there on your calendar.
The House bar will be open to serve alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.
Admission is offered on a sliding scale, from $0-$25. Revenue from ticket sales directly supports Hugo House's mission to provide space for all to read words, hear words, and make their own words better. We encourage you to pick a ticket price that is right for you.
Please note: Our venue can accommodate seating for 150 attendees. Pre-registration to this event is strongly encouraged, and will be open until 1 hour before the start of the event. After this, walk-in registration will be available at the door.
To learn more about AWP Conference & Bookfair, visit their website here.
To learn more about Hugo House’s AWP events, visit our AWP page here.
Paulette Perhach
Paulette Perhach’s writing has been published in the New York Times, Elle, Vice, Slate, Inc., McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Hobart, Yoga Journal, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Glamour, and the Stranger. She’s worked for Health and Coastal Living magazines, as well as various newspapers. In 2013, Hugo House selected her as a Made at Hugo House Fellow. She received the 2016 BlogHer Voices of the Year award for her essay, “A Story of a Fuck Off Fund,” which is anthologized in The Future is Feminist from Chronicle Books, along with work by Roxane Gay, Mindy Kaling, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Caitlin Moran, and Audre Lorde. A returned Peace Corps Volunteer, she’s also won multiple Solas Awards for her travel writing. In 2015 she created the Writer’s Welcome Kit, the online course sold through Hugo House, which includes a 55,000-word workbook, writer’s templates, and writer interviews. To date, more than 600 students have taken the course. Her book, Welcome to the Writer's Life, was published by Sasquatch Books, part of the Penguin Random House publishing family, and was selected as one of Poets & Writers' Best Books for Writers. In 2021, she was selected as a Jack Straw Fellow. In 2022 she celebrated a nomination from Barrelhouse for Best of the Net.
Learn more and read her work at PaulettePerhach.com.
