Miami, Ep. 7

November 20, 2015 — In our annual Magic City amazement, Literary Death Match returned to the Miami Book Fair International for an author party spectacular that featured a crazy amount of literary talent, on a wild night that finished with Colin Channer upending Sara Benincasa in a winner-take-all Literary Spelling Bee III finale that won Channer the LDM Miami, Ep. 7 crown. 

But before the finale was even a thought Round 1 featured the masterful non-fiction stylings of Meera Subramanian, award-winning journalist and author of A River Runs Again followed by the knockout poetry of Colin Channer, author of the poetry collection Providential and best-selling novel Waiting in Vain. 

The microphone was then handed to the quartet of all-star judges: Richard Price, author/screenwriter of The Whites, Clockers, Lush Life & The Wire; Joy-Ann Reid, national MSNBC correspondent, author of Fracture: Barack Obama, the Clintons and the Racial Divide; Eric Bogosian, author of Operation Nemesis, actor (Law & Order), monologist and playwright; and Chip Kidd, author of Only What's Necessary, art director and book designer. After reeling off praise and levity aimed at each author, the judges made the night's first impossible decision, declaring Channer as the night's first finalist. 

Then came Round 2, featuring the magical Sara Benincasa, author of DC Trip and one of Flavorwire's 25 Female Comedians Everyone Should Know, as she read from her forthcoming gem, Real Artists Have Day Jobs: And Other Aweseome Things They Don't Teach You in School, followed by ceaselessly charming Bob Morris, Lambda Award-nominated of Crispin the Terrible and Assisted Loving who read from his latest brilliance, Bobby Wonderful: An Imperfect Son Buries His Parents. 

Again the judges mixed quips with gentle barbs in response to Benincasa and Morris, before making the night's second impossible decision, naming Benincasa as the night's second finalist. 

Then up stepped LDM creator Adrian Todd Zuniga, who announced the night's finale: Literary Spelling Bee III, in which Channer and Benincasa took turns spelling more and more complicated author names. In the final round, with everything to play for, it was Team Channer who outlasted Team Benincasa, winning Channer the Literary Death Match Miami, Ep. 7 medal and literary immortality to go with it.