400 Words Party, Nov. 29

November 21st, 2006 by katherine

And now, for a moment of self-plugging. (I swear, it’s not as filthy as it sounds.)

Some of you know that while I’m not working for my employers, or blogging for this guy (hi, Larry!), I can be found putting together a little magazine of short-short nonfiction called 400 Words. The premise is pretty simple: I ask people to write a true, personal story of 400 words or less on a theme, and publish the standouts on my website and also as an annual book, which is tres exciting. (Don’t tell the web, but I have a special soft place in my heart for print.) The first 400 Words print issue was made up of 400-word autobiographies. For the second issue, I had people write about their compulsions.

This morning, a FedEx freight truck pulled up to the door of my apartment in Brooklyn and slowly disgorged the entire print run of 400 Words, Issue 2. It came on a pallet. A pallet!

If you’re in the New York area, you are invited to come out on Wednesday, November 29, and celebrate the launch of 400 Words, Issue 2: Compulsions. The festivities occur at Club Midway: a warm, cozy, funky-fabulous spot at 25 Avenue B (between 2nd and 3rd Streets), in Manhattan.

The party is from 7-9:30 PM. Come drink, read (as at the last party, you can sign up to read something whether you had a piece in the issue or not), meet people, and klatch about the odd little things you do for no good reason, or for reasons you know to be perfectly bizarre. It’ll be liberating!

Best of all, and I’m going to put this in capital letters here, the club has HALF-PRICE WELL DRINKS FOR LAUNCH PARTY PEOPLE (that’s you) for the duration of the event.

Please come out and support the project. It will be a good time, you’ll drink for cheap, and maybe you’ll meet someone else who shares your irrepressible need to speak in sentences that end in multiples of nine syllables…or whatever it is you do.

I can’t wait to see you there.

 
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