LA, Ep. 45

September 15, 2016 — After a summer away, Literary Death Match returned to Los Angeles for our annual classic at the Hammer Museum that ended with Literary Spelling Bee III — the longest finale in LDM history — which saw Nadja Spiegelman narrowly topple Antonio Sacre by a single point to win Spiegelman the LDM LA, Ep. 45 crown, and literary immortality to go with it.

Here is the full lineup from the night of:

JUDGES:
Literary Merit: Amelia Gray, NYPL Young Lion-winning author of Gutshot and Threats
Performance: Marguerite Moreau, actor and star of Wet Hot American Summer
Intangibles: Armen Weitzman, actor featured on Another Period and Netflix's Love
Super-Intangibles: Kumail Nanjiani, writer, comedian, actor, podcaster and co-star of HBO's Silicon Valley

READERS:
* Jon Klassen, American Caldecott and British Kate Greenaway Medal-winning author of This is Not My Hat
* Nadja Spiegelman, graphic novelist, author of the new memoir I'm Supposed to Protect You from All This 
* Antonio Sacre , performer and author of My Name is Cool: Stories from a Cuban-Irish-American Storyteller
* Ryka Aoki, poet and author of Why Dust Shall Never Settle Upon This Soul (2016 Lambda Literary Finalist)

Hosted by LDM creator Adrian Todd Zuniga. Produced by Hannah Settle and Sarah Casolaro