Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Jawnts: Scottish tales and beyond

Almost year-round, Tattooed Mom on South Street hosts the literary series Tire Fire - with a break for summer. Stepping into the void is West Philly author Matthew Jakubowski, who is hosting a reading at the bar to celebrate the end of summer and welcome Scottish author Helen McClory for the Philadelphia stop on her book tour, which is funded by Kickstarter. (It's her first visit to the city.)

Helen McClory
Helen McCloryRead more

Almost year-round, Tattooed Mom on South Street hosts the literary series Tire Fire - with a break for summer.

Stepping into the void is West Philly author Matthew Jakubowski, who is hosting a reading at the bar to celebrate the end of summer and welcome Scottish author Helen McClory for the Philadelphia stop on her book tour, which is funded by Kickstarter. (It's her first visit to the city.)

"It really started with Helen and wanting to support her coming across the pond for this tour," says Jakubowski. "I wanted to get a good mix of people who write not only different styles but about very different things, have different styles, and are at different phases of their careers."

McClory is promoting her first book of flash fiction, On the Edges of Vision (Queen's Ferry Press of Texas). The book is influenced by Angela Carter, Casey Hannan, Robert Burns' poem "Tam O'Shanter," Scottish writer Kirsty Logan, and the Scottish fairy tales and myths McClory grew up reading.

"It's somewhere between horror and surrealist fiction, the way a lot of old fairy tales are," writes McClory in a Twitter message. "There's an undercurrent of dark humor too."

The stories are all short, under 2,000 words, with some fewer than 200 words.

The reading also will include short-story writers, novelists, and poets. They are published by micro presses and major houses, and some are still in college. Many of them also live in West Philly.

Asali Solomon teaches English at Haverford and writes both short and long fiction. Ras Mashramani is a sci-fi author and cofounder of a collective devoted to speculative fiction. Jasmine Combs is a poet who attends Temple University, and P.E. Garcia writes short stories and works at the respected online literary publication the Rumpus.

The reading is Thursday at Tattooed Mom, 530 South St. Doors open at 7 p.m. with readings starting at 8. Books will be on sale. There is no cover, but you must be at least 21, as it is a bar.