Portland (ME), Ep. 3

October 11, 2013 — On yet another dazzling night in Portland, Maine, Literary Death Match — presented by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance — returned to the all-brilliant Space Gallery for a whizbang affair that saw Bill Roorbach outduel co-finalist Jessica Anthony by a score of 46-41 in hotly-contested Lone Star Lit finale, winning Roorbach the LDM Portland (ME), Ep. 3 crown. 

But before the sudden-death finish, the night kicked off with Anthony (author of Chopsticks and The Convalescent) reading a brilliant short story excerpt about the experience of being a female astronaut. Her opponent was Mira Ptacin (contributor to Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York) who detailed her move from the difficulties of NYC to the simpler, easier, relationship-saving life in Portland, Maine.

The mic was then handed over to the trio of all-star judges: Joshua Bodwell, writer & Executive Director of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance; Sean Mewshaw, theater and film director; and 2 Degrees Portland cofounder Chelsea DeLorme. After delivering wise-cracks and magestically charming comments, the three acknowledged that they loved both writers fully, but in the end decided it was Anthony who would advance as the night's first finalist.  

After a booze-skewed intermission, Round 2 kicked off with wildcard Crash Barry (author of Sex, Drugs & Blueberries) delivering a LDM first by handing a tiny branch of marijuana around to the crowd before reeling off the travails of a sailor out on the open sea in a storm. Finally, it was Bill Roorbach (author of Flannery O'Connor Prize and O. Henry Prize winning novel Big Bend, and 7 others) who told the tragi-comic tale of an overweight woman being robbed with more trouble to come. 

Again the judges were under the spotlight, with loads of gleeful commentary before deciding that it would be age before beauty, as they advanced Roorbach as the night's second finalist. 

Finally, host and LDM creator Adrian Todd Zuniga took center stage to announce the night's finale: Lone Star Lit, in which Zuniga read off 1-star Amazon reviews about Time's 100 Best Books of All-Time, and the two finalists and their crowd-volunteer teammates had to shout out which book they were talking about. In a back and forth insta-classic, it was Team Roorbach who scored the final points to propel Roorbach to victory — winning him the Literary Death Match Portland (ME), Ep. 3 medal, and literary immortality to go with it. 

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