Seattle, Ep. 3

February 28, 2014 — In a fateful return to the Emerald City, Literary Death Match teamed with Painted Bride Quarterly at AWP for a spectacular at Lucid Seattle. The night ended when Abraham Smith outlasted Kiki Petrosino in a Lone Star Lit finale in sudden death overtime to snare Smith the LDM Seattle, Ep. 3 title. 

But before the finale was even a thought, the night kicked off with Petrosino, poet and author of Fort Red Border and Hymn for the Black Terrific, who reeled off a sequence of poems — like "Secret Ninja" and "Personal Style Monologue" — that absolutely wowed. Then up stepped Elena Passarello, author of Let Me Clear My Throat and contributor to Pop When the World Falls Apart, who magically performed her piece on Prince and his, well, magic. 

The mic was then turned over to the trio of all-star judges: Xu Xi, author of Habit of a Foreign Sky & founder of Asia's first low-residency MFA in creative writing; Kristin Dombek, Rona Jaffe Foundation award recipient and n+1 advice columnist; and Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, author of 5 books of poetry including Dear Future Boyfriend and Hot Teen Slut. The fantastic trio reeled off praise upon praise for both readers — with humorous interstitial commentery — before deciding it would be Petrosino who would advance as the night's first finalist. 

Then the night whizzed into Round 2, led off by the downright transcendent Abraham Smith, poet and author of Hank and Whim Man Mammon, who dazzled with the title poem of his all-new Only Jesus Could Icefish in Summer. Finally, it was Ben Hale, author of The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore, who read an excerpt from his soon-to-come novel about a mix of Super Mario's "minus world" and going out for beer and ending up in a crackhouse. 

Again the mics were handed over to the judges, who again dealt hilarities and congratulations to each reader before huddling up and deciding it would be Smith who would advance as the night's second finalist. 

Then up stepped LDM creator Adrian Todd Zuniga to announce the night's finale: Lone Star Lit, in which he read off 1-star Amazon book reviews written about classic books. The finalists, teamed with volunteers from the crowd, traded points, and with everything to play for on the final question, it was Team Smith who jabbed the buzzer first, nailed the final answer, winning Smith the LDM Seattle, Ep. 3 medal and literary immortality to go with it.

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