Friday, June 10, 2011 at 10:25AM June 10, 2011 — Literary Death Match's June Swoon return to San Francisco finished with a burning climax when Belo Cipriani beat out Lisa Catherine Harper in reconfigured version of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey." Leave it to LDM to violate even this most cherished of kids' party games.
Friday, April 8, 2011 at 3:32PM In a historic finale that Literary Death Match historians will debate for centuries to come, poets Monica Youn (Ignatz) and Dean Rader (Works & Days) simultaneously pieced together and recognized the famous face of Hunter S. Thompson, resulting in the first tie ever in San Francisco LDM history.
Saturday, February 5, 2011 at 10:33AM February 11, 2011 — On a classic night in Literary Death Match History the finish came when Monica Nolan raced to the end of a passage from Candide — her mouth full of marshmallows — as she out mushmouthed co-finalist and poet Geoff Bouvier to win literature's grandest prize.
Friday, November 26, 2010 at 3:24PM December 10, 2010 — Mad-libbed, choral renditions of holiday favorites “Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Frosty the Snowman” decided the unprecedented ending of LDM SF's Holiday Bloodbath Special. In the spirit of the season, Jamie DeWolf plowed the competition for all gingers great and small, pimples and all!
Friday, November 12, 2010 at 5:12PM November 12, 2010 — In a rousing finale that transferred the entire Elbo Room audience from floor to stage, novelist Kwei Quartey gathered a vast literary social network of novelists, beating out short story master Thaisa Frank.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 2:49PM October 6, 2010 — The kick off for the LDM100 tour at San Francisco's Litquake was nothing short of spectacular, with a wild centurial finale that saw Jason Bayani outduel fellow finalist Kari Kiernan 11-6 in a 100-second book stack competition that changed the face of literature forever.
Thursday, September 9, 2010 at 11:00PM September 10, 2010 — Steady Mike Adamick pulled a one-word victory over impassioned, high-fashioned Pam Benjamin in Literary Death Match 33 at the Elbo Room. Adamick secured the win by not quite completing the dying words of Che Guevara: “Shoot coward, you are only going to kill a man!”
Fueled by foxy moxie and horsefeathers, co-hosts Alia Volz and comedienne Janine Brito, commanded the crowd’s attention with an absurdist homage to the alphabet that left Volz bleeding on the floor at Brito’s feet. Gertrude Stein would have proud to love these ladies!
Thursday, August 12, 2010 at 4:49PM August 13, 2010 — In a finale seared into the collective unconscious of the Elbo Room crowd, poet D. A. Powell came from behind to snatch victory from novelist Tanya Egan Gibson. After citing the correct Shakespearean play, he claimed the winning point by thrusting his cactus forward to pop host M.G. Martin’s cherry (balloon). And yes, the exploding balloon did spew forth a distinctly blood-like liquid.