The Big Big Mess Reading Series

04/18/2019

Chris Drabick, very good friend of the Big Big Mess, and his family are getting through some tough, compounded circumstances. Both Chris and Alison are wonderful supporters of the Akron arts community and could really use the community's help. Please consider donating to help them through this time.

A catastrophic event like a major health crisis or a job loss can really throw things off balance. So what happens when both situations occur on the same day? On Thursday, March 28, Christopher Drabick, an adjunct Senior Lecturer in the English Department at the University of Akron and loving dad...

09/13/2016

What great news! Last month's Mess'r, Daniel Borzutsky, has been included on this year's National Book Award longlist in Poetry for his book, "The Performance of Becoming Human." Congratulations, Daniel!

The contenders for the 2016 National Book Award for Poetry include both repeat nominees and newcomers whose débuts were published just this year.

07/27/2016

HEY EVERYONE! Our August is getting busy with multiple events.

FIRST (in important need-to-know fashion) our monthly reading has been moved to August 13th! Please tell your friends, your family, and even strangers who might not know. We'll have three featured readers: Mary Biddinger and Jay Robinson will be peddling their brand new tandem book THE CZAR; they will be joined by Billy Hallal. This will be our normal evening event at Annabell's Bar & Lounge. REMEMBER IT'S NOW THE 13th. Here's the event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/1032610606821139/

FIRST (in the chronological fashion) we will be setting up shop on August 6th at the first ever EarthQuaker Day. Akron's best sound maker is throwing a fair with local vendors, artists, food trucks, music, and US! We've partnered up with our friends at Magic Helicopter Press and Big Lucks Press who have sent us books that will be for sale. We'll also have advanced copies of Mary Biddinger & Jay Robinson's THE CZAR for sale. Who knows what else we might have as give-aways! For more info, go to this link: https://www.facebook.com/events/599407713561198/

06/10/2016

a belated THANK YOU! to everyone who came out to celebrate our BIG BIG BIRTHDAY last weekend, especially our readers alexa, nathan, sarah, and keith. if you didn't get a chance to talk with keith after the reading but are interested in his books, please visit this page on the internet and it will tell you how to buy them. much love, akron! we'll see you in july with some more big summer feelinzzzz

06/04/2016

Alexa Mal is a great poet doing great things in Akron. Most recently, she birthed a reading series, slowly nowhere, in association with Hive Mind. If you haven't yet, check out their events & support good good people!

Our mission is to provide a community space in Akron that will showcase all forms of expression and e

06/04/2016

We are all about Sarah Dravec at BBM--this lil love monster is our first-ever three-peat reader! Check out a great poem of hers here http://www.squalorly.com/poetry/wonderful-chain-events-sarah-dravec & see her read TONIGHT!

You wake up wanting something warm. There is a leak in your mug. Unaware of this, you complete three minutes of unrelated activity and discover that your table is ruined. How terrible, how terrible, you think, because this table belonged to a maternal grandmother your biological mother never even me...

06/04/2016

There's a free download of Nathan Kemp's chap ANIMALS OF THE NEW WORLD up at H_NGM_N! Check it out here http://www.h-ngm-n.com/chaps/ & see him read as a born-again Akronite TONIGHT!

The portable document format chapbook series publishes up to six chapbooks per year. Click to our Guidelines page to learn how to submit your poetry or prose manuscript.

06/04/2016

We're so lucky to be able to celebrate our birthday with four great readers tonight! Check out some of Keith Leonard's great poems here: http://www.keithleonardpoetry.com/ #!poems/c21ra & see him read TONIGHT!

02/12/2016

"Mother moaned as the doctor cried, “Push.” Father squeezed tight to her curled fingers while the metal tongs probed inside. She pushed. Pushed. Pushed again. A weight released. A gasp of air. Silence.

“Why isn’t my baby crying?” Mother asked.

The doctor removed his mask. He stared at the couple.

“Is it a boy or a girl?” Father asked.

“It’s a carbonaceous chondrite,” said the doctor.

“A what?”

“A meteorite.”

Continue reading Nicholas Reali's story, "The Universe is Shaped Exactly Like the Earth," at the link below, and see him read THIS SATURDAY! 7 PM, Annabell's, in the basement.

By: Nicholas Reali Mother lay beside Father. He leaned against the headboard, flickering candle in hand. Flame's pale light dervishing around the room's shadowed walls. Mother gritted her teeth and...