St. Louis, Ep. 1
Thursday, November 10, 2022 at 6:16PM 
November 10, 2022 — Our long-awaited St. Louis debut was a homecoming for the ages for LDM creator Adrian Todd Zuniga, and the brilliant night at High Low — presented by the fantastic Kranzberg Arts Foundation — saw Gabe Montesanti topple Deborah Taffa in a dramatic Arithme-Lit finale to win Montesanti the LDM St. Louis, Ep. 1 crown, and literary immortality to go with it.
Here's the full lineup from the night:
JUDGES:
Literary Merit: Dr. Treasure Shields Redmond, poet and author of chop: 30 kwansabas for fannie lou hamer, performer, and educator, and a Cave Canem fellow with an MFA from the University of Memphis and a PhD from Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Performance: Olajuwon Davis, actor who's recently appeared for The Black Rep Theatre's "Jitney," "Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea" and "The African Company Presents Richard III"
READERS:
Round 1:
* Gabe Montesanti, a queer, Midwestern roller derby player and author of roller derby memoir Brace for Impact; her piece, "The Worldwide Roller Derby Convention" was named a notable essay in The Best American Essays 2020
* Ron A. Austin, author of Avery Colt Is a Snake, a Thief, a Liar, a collection of linked stories that won the 2017 Nilsen Prize, was a 2019 Foreward INDIES GOLD Award winner, and was nominated for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize and a 2020 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award
Round 2:
* Deborah Taffa, winner of the PEN Jean Stein Grant, her memoir Whiskey Tender is forthcoming from Harper Collins in 2023, she's a Kranzberg, MacDowell, Hedgebrook, and Tin House Fellow, and director of the MFA Creative Writing program at IAIA (Institute of American Indian Arts)
* Angela Hamilton, essayist who has appeared in The Southeast Review, Quarterly West and The MacGuffin; a Fulbright scholar who's taught in Jordan and Turkey; and an associate professor of English at St. Louis Community College
Hosted by LDM creator Adrian Todd Zuniga (author of the award-nominated novel Collision Theory)
Where: High Low (Kranzberg Arts Foundation’s literary arts cafe), 3301 Washington Ave., St. Louis