SF, Ep. 72

April 21, 2023 — During our April mini-sprint through America, Literary Death Match returned to the The Battery for a members-only showcase riddled with a sparkling array of talent that saw Lauren Parker claim victory over Shobha Rao in a blazingly-close Arithme-Lit finale to win Parker the LDM SF, Ep. 72 crown and literary immortality to go with it. 

Here's the full lineup from that night: 

JUDGES: 
Literary Merit: Anisse Gross, writer and editor who has been featured in The New York Times, TheNewYorker.com, Lucky Peach, The Believer, The Guardian, BuzzFeed, Virginia Quarterly Review and beyond

Performance: Aisha Harris, co-host and critic for NPR’s hit podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, who has worked as a writer and editor at The New York Times and Slate Magazine. Her debut book Wannabe: Reckonings With the Pop Culture That Shapes Me releases June 13, 2023 (preorder now!)

Intangibles: Natasha Muse, comedian, book lover and mom who was named both an SF Weekly "Comedian to Watch" and an "Artist to Watch"

READERS: 
Round 1: 
* Lauren Parker, writer and visual artist, winner of the Daily Californian's Summer of Love essay contest, the Vachel Lindsay poetry prize, and author of the collection We Are Now the Thing in the Woods

* Matt Carney, musician, fabulist fiction writer and co-creator of the series Club Chicxulub — stream his synthrock art band N!

Round 2:
* Shobha Rao, author of An Unrestored Woman and Girls Burn Brighter, she won the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction, and her story "Kavitha and Mustafa" was chosen by T.C. Boyle for Best American Short Stories

* Nefertiti Asanti, poet and author of fist of wind, winner the inaugural Start a Riot! Chapbook Prize who has received fellowships and residencies from Lambda Literary, Museum of the African Diaspora and PEN America

Hosted by LDM creator Adrian Todd Zuniga (author of the award-nominated novel Collision Theory)

Produced by Matthew DeCoster

Where: The Battery, 717 Battery St, San Francisco
When: April 21, 8pm-915pm (doors at 7:30pm)
Cost: This is a private show for Battery members only