Look at these gorgeous readers. Just LOOK. And then show up to hear them, because … you know, they’re more gorgeous in person.

Meg Day
Kristin FitzPatrick
Ben Jahn
Ericka Lutz
April Sinclair
Janey Smith

Saturday, April 30
6:30-8:30pm
The Layover
1517 Franklin Street
Downtown Oakland (so close to 19th St. BART, you have no excuse …)

Host: Lauren Becker
Indispensable EBOB Sidekick: Paul Corman-Roberts
Suggested donation: $2 or whatever

Bring your friends and blood pressure medication. Good times, people. Guaranteed. See you then!!

The number of hugely talented East Bay writers blows the mind. Join us for further mind-blowing on Saturday, November 13, 7-9pm at our favorite venue, The Layover, for readings by:

Denise Bostrom
Christy Chan
Missy Church
Jane Hammons
Charles Kruger
and
Roger Porter

With a brief, but heartfelt, ode to the East Bay from our own Paul Corman-Roberts!

Hosted by Lauren Becker

Assuage your brain’s craving for some East Bay goodness. The 13th. See you there!

See? It really was a great night. I do not lie about such things.

Please plan on joining us in November, when EBOB will feature even more great East Bay writers, including Jane Hammons and Missy Church.

And please join Corium Magazine for its Litquake Lit Crawl debut on October 9. Phase 2, 7:15-8:15, at SUB-MISSION, 2183 Mission Street in San Francisco. Two of the five readers are also EBOB alumni — Andrea Kneeland and Stefanie Freele — and EBOB will definitely get a shout-out! Other readers: John W. Evans, Ben Loory, and Jenny Bitner.

I keep telling him nobody wants their cars worked on by a dog. Life is not a cartoon.

Next up was (brand new dad!) Joe Clifford , who blew us away with an excerpt from his memoir, Junkie Love. He also read a piece of fiction — kind of gross, with a theme of bugs burrowing under skin, but fantastic, with a name to which many of us can relate, based on submission rejections — “Unpublished Manuscript Number 36.”

You don’t even have a drinking problem. Aren’t all writers supposed to have drinking problems?

You cannot fail if you do not try.

Wrapping up the first set, Jezebel Delilah X evangelized about the often greedy and thoughtless manner with which we treat one another and the earth, and converted the rapt audience.

My body is lead-free and not a pending receipt for your mercury.

Mother, lover, daughter, sister earth, I miss you. I love you. And I want you to reclaim me.

After a brief intermission, during which lovely Layover co-owner RaeAnne, and adorable bartender, James, attended to the needs of the thirsty crowd, EBOB’s excellent readers finished out EBOB 3, to heard and overheard praise and anticipation for EBOB 4.

Reclaiming the audience with her compelling style and content, Mindela Ruby read from her novel, “Sparkles, Chameleons, Transparence.” I feel safe in my assessment that all of us would have listened had she read her entire novel.

By (his) definition, if I have money, it’s worth less than other people’s.

I’m not expecting a miracle. Just hoping to dial back the misery.

Incomparable poet Maw Shein Win then shared a few pages from the cringe- and laugh-worthy journal she kept as an angsty, attention-challenged 18 year-old, recapped episodes of soap operas, and transformed Alan Ginsburg’s classic rant to a cute and fuzzy, yet biting, commentary on felines with “Yowl.”

I’m complicating the script and should listen to the producer.

I saw the best cats of my generation, deranged by hunger, stalking, maniacal, furry.

Finally, Timothy Crandle  enraptured EBOB’s attentive attendees with a lovely excerpt from his short story, “University Hospital,” which highlighted his masterful command of evocative description and consummate reading style. Tim concluded EBOB 3 with “Stiffed,” a hilarious and educational piece on the sexual habits of dinosaurs.

When my clock radio played a favorite song, sometimes I danced, bare feet slapping on the rough cement floor.

There’s a reason that male genitalia are tucked away safely between our legs rather than sticking off of our foreheads.


I couldn’t help it. I get geeky excited about EBOB, and decided it might be fun to add a short Bay Area-related piece as a lead-in to the second set. The audience humored me while I read a brief piece on doomed lovers, separated by the Bay Bridge, previously published in SOMALit, entitled “Geography.”

I’m West Coast bridge and tunnel. City dates City. Oakland has better parking.

We like the idea of the Bay Area segue and think it might be a regular thing; Paul and I will figure out the details. He’ll treat us with an ode to the East Bay of his own at the November EBOB, which, of course, you should not miss.

I have to say, EBOB has thus far exceeded my hopes and intentions, and Paul and I are so happy that EBOB is helping to showcase East Bay talent, and that it provides the welcome opportunity for readers to stay closer to home. San Francisco has an unbelievable literary scene that will always be a draw; I continue to be awed by the sheer number of consistently high-quality literary events that SF is able to nurture.  We don’t often get visitors to this side of the bridge, so we were thrilled that a few brave souls ventured over to hang with us. And, seriously, how cool is it for we travel-weary East Bay writers to do our thing at a favorite local venue for a few hours on a Saturday night?

EBOB 4 — sometime in November. We are digging the submissions coming in through our new submissions manager, Submishmash, through which you, too, may send us East Bay-born work you’d like us to consider for a future event. Click through via the Submissions link on the left side of this page.

Thank you, readers, The Layover, and the one and only Paul Corman-Roberts: generalissimo of EBOB, gracious cheerleader for all writers, everywhere, and devotee of all things East Bay.

Until November …

We would love to see amazing writing from East Bay writers who are interested in participating in the next EBOB, which will occur sometime in November, maybe the 13th or 20th … Saunter on over to the pages listed on the right side of the site. There’s one that says “Submissions.” That is where you will submit!

If you have any video of previous readings, it would be so incredibly great if you would include a link. This is totally not necessary. We’d love to include first-time or otherwise non-experienced readers. It is just nice to see you, if possible.

We look forward to checking out your stuff. Thanks!

I thought so.

See you there! Please say hi and sign up on our email list!

Readers are:

Joe Clifford
Timothy Crandle
Amy Glasenapp
Mindela Ruby
Maw Shein Win
Jezebel Delilah X

Host: Lauren Becker

Suggested donation: $3-5. (Give what you can give. “Donation” = voluntary. We appreciate help with our costs, but please don’t stay away for lack of funds. We know how it is.)

Contact Lauren at ljb921 [at] gmail [dot] com (subject line: EBOB) with questions, press inquiries, haiku, and offers of patronage. We will have a new submissions manager up and running shortly.

Thanks for the support!

Date: Saturday, August 28
Time: 7-9pm
Place: The Layover (East Bay’s Best New Bar and home to EBOB!)

Readers: East Bay writers Timothy Crandle, Mindela Ruby, Maw Shein Win, and Joe Clifford. Two or three more East Bay superstars to be announced …

Submissions still open at eastbayonthebrain@yahoo.com. Please be: an awesome writer, an awesome reader, and a resident of the East Bay. You will be in excellent company.