Get in Touch with Your Artist Woman at SWAN Spoken Soul Showcase

Looking to let your hair down, ditch the push-up bra, and experience “a life-inspiring, soul-moving, belly-laughing, and rhythmically-healing artistic weekend!” That’s what you’ll get at SWAN (Support Women Artists Now) Day this Saturday at The Stage, according to local founder Deborah Magdalena. The movement behind the event was created by…

Comic Book Artist Arthur Suydam Talks Miami-Inspired Zombie Scarface

Arthur Suydam is the undisputed “zombie king” of the comic book universe. Although this writer, illustrator, and musician has worked on such iconic comic books as Heavy Metal, Batman, Conan, Tarzan, Predator, and Aliens, his infamy is due largely to the deliciously hellish covers he designs for the infinitely popular…

Karen Russell on Swamplandia! and the Weirdness of Growing Up in Miami

If you see bumper-to-bumper traffic on Tamiami Trail heading to the Everglades, it’s because author Karen Russell has made our mucky, inhabitable frontier seem like a thrilling carnival ride. Her debut novel Swamplandia! follows the adventures of the Bigtree gator-wrestling dynasty. Ava takes an Odyssey-like expedition through the swamp in…

Local High School Humor Newspaper Misplaced Humor Goes Online

We’re always glad to see another publications enter the online domain, especially if they’re local and humor based. Which is precisely why we are so pleased that a cult newspaper that rocked Miami high schools, Misplaced Humor, has revived itself as a website. The founders of the paper, Sebastian Abella…

Miami Poetry Collective Brings Miami Squares to Sweat Records

Miami’s finally figuring out that it’s awesome to get creative with your friends and then share your genius, or whatever, with the rest of the city. Miami Poetry Collective demonstrated this last summer at the inaugural Miami Squares at Sweat Records. The interactive poetry reading was packed with pleased fans and…

Hills‘ Lo Bosworth Learns to Write (Who Knew She Could Read)

Things like the virtual bookshelf for the iPad and the million of other eBooks out there exist for a reason–people still love to read. Sure, there are greats like Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote, and Emily Dickinson, but who needs them? It’s 2011 and people like Chelsea Handler, Ricky Martin, and…

Six Professions Deader Than Print Journalism

The Imperfectionists portrays a group of journalists at a declining newspaper and begs several questions: Is it truly the end of the print era? What happens to all the old timers just looking for a scoop? Can they adapt? Or will they rot at the merciless hands of technology? The…

Martin Lemelman on Brooklyn and His Graphic Memoir Two Cents Plain

​Martin Lemelman lived every child’s dream. He grew up in the back of a candy store. His experience wasn’t all egg creams and lollipops though. The rough neighborhood of Brownsville in Brooklyn, NY, where he was raised, was in decline. Luckily, his life was populated with colorful neighbors and family who…

[Name] Publications Produces Miami-Based Art Books

​Art books tend to be heavy both in weight and in visual content. They’re often expensive and show work by artists you’ll never meet, ever. Then there’s those by [Name] Publications, which feature Miami artists such as Daniel Newman and Beatriz Monteavaro. They may still be heavier than your average…

O, Miami Launches Census of Dade County Poets

“There once was a man from Nantucket, with” … a few more words and we’d qualify for the O, Miami’s Poet Census. The inaugural poetry festival, which begins this April, wants to do a head count of all the poets living in Miami-Dade. Founder P. Scott Cunningham, a former New…

From Ricky Martin to Betty White: Celebrity Books Worth Your Time

Still reeling from the celebrity parade at last week’s Miami Book Fair? Having Bush, Meghan McCain, John Waters, Patti Smith, etc. in town really got us jones’n for more literature about how the famous half lives. And there’s no need to wait until Miami Dade College organizes another fair 12…

Julie Klausner, Julie Klam, and Sascha Rothchild at Miami Book Fair

Photo by Conrad Ventur​What happens when you get three funny ladies in the same room? Knock-knock joke about kittens, tampons, and feelings? Nah, more like Julie Klausner, Julie Klam, and Sascha Rothchild — three writers of the XX chromosome who gave an audience a complete core workout (suck on that,…

Dave Eggers Charms with Sincerity at Miami Book Fair

On Saturday morning at Miami Dade College, author Dave Eggers told a packed room that Miami Book Fair International was “the one festival nobody says no to.” He then added, mostly because of the weather. Though Eggers had a short time in the spotlight at the festival, he managed to…