Hugo Literary Series: Andrew Sean Greer, Claire Vaye Watkins, Roberto Ascalon, and Alex Osuch
Cliché: All’s fair in love and war
Meaning: Lovers and soldiers aren’t bound by the typical social and moral rules
Hear new work on the theme “All’s fair in love and war” from Andrew Sean Greer; fiction writer Claire Vaye Watkins; and New York-born poet and spoken-word performer Roberto Ascalon. Alex Osuch will perform experimental electronic music.
Andrew Sean Greer is an American novelist and short-story writer. His second novel The Confessions of Max Tivoli earned him comparisons to Proust and Nabokov from critic John Updike. His stories have appeared in Esquire, The Paris Review, The New Yorker, and other national publications.
Claire Vaye Watkins has appeared in Granta, One Story, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, Best of the West 2011, New Stories from the Southwest 2013, the New York Times, and elsewhere. She was named one of the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35.”
Roberto Ascalon is a poet, writer, arts educator, and spoken-word performance artist who lives in the historic Youngstown/Cooper School in West Seattle. The recent recipient of the 2013 Rattle Poetry Prize, Ascalon has taught at Nova High School and participated in Seattle Arts and Lectures’ Writers-in-the Schools program. He currently works as a teaching artist and mentor for Arts Corps, Youth Speaks Seattle, and the Service Board.
Seattle native DJAO (aka Alex Osuch) is a producer/vocalist of electronic music: hazy bass, sung echoes, swung-out drums, zones. Alex began to produce in earnest after joining up with Dropping Gems in 2010, and his live performances have since evolved to their current state: a combination of singing, triggering, and dancing. His music covers a wide fuzzy swath of the electronic spectrum. It exemplifies the progressive tradition of mixing elements from different disciplines into a cohesive whole, all in service of a central harmonic vision. It confronts everything from sadness to relaxation to the warm revelation of a burden lifted. Behind it all is a profoundly mundane daily routine. More information and music can be found at www.djaomusic.com
Read about this event in Seattle Weekly.