Austin, Ep. 12

November 4, 2017 — For our annual Austin drop-in, Literary Death Match once again teamed with the Texas Book Festival for a Lit Crawl-fueled night of splendiferousness at The North Door that saw Rakesh Satyal narrowly topple Melissa Febos in a wild Literary Spelling Bee III finale by a single point to win Satyal the LDM Austin, Ep. 12 crown, and literary immortality to go with it.

Here's the full lineup from the night:

JUDGES: 
Literary Merit: Dan Chaon, Story Prize-finalist and best-selling author of Ill Will and Stay Awake
Performance: Maya Perez, writer, producer/consultant for Austin Film Festival’s On Story, and a board member of the Austin Film Festival
Intangibles: Elena Passarello, Whiting Award-winning author of Animals Strike Curious Poses and Let Me Clear My Throat

READERS:
Round 1:
* Simeon Marsalis, author of As Lie is to Grin, shortlisted for the 2017 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
* Melissa Febos, award-winning author of Whip Smart and Abandon Me

Round 2:
* Rakesh Satyal , Lambda Award-winning author of Blue Boy and the all-new No One Can Pronounce My Name 
* Rachel Khong, author of the debut novel, Goodbye, Vitamin

Hosted by LDM creator Adrian Todd Zuniga.