Attic 506 Rooftop Reading - November 19, 3pm

Please join us on Saturday, November 19, at 3pm for a Rooftop Reading curated by Mesha Maren. Mesha Maren will be reading from her latest novel 'Perpetual West', published this year by Algonquin Books. Signed copies will be available for purchase through The Concern Newsstand. The spaces at Attic 506 will be open that day 1-4pm.

Reading along with Mesha will be Tyree Daye, Ashleigh Bryant Phillips, Destiny Hemphill (bios below).

Mesha Maren is the author of the novels Sugar Run and Perpetual West (Algonquin Books). Her short stories and essays can be read in Tin House, The Oxford American, The Guardian, Crazyhorse, Triquarterly, The Southern Review, Ecotone and elsewhere. She was the 2018-2019 Kenan Visiting Writer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is currently an Assistant Professor of the Practice of English at Duke University.

Tyree Daye is a poet from Youngsville, North Carolina, and a Teaching Assistant Professor at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is the author of two poetry collections River Hymns, the 2017 APR/Honickman First Book Prize winner, and Cardinal (Copper Canyon, 2020). Daye is a Cave Canem fellow. Daye won the 2019 Palm Beach Poetry Festival Langston Hughes Fellowship and was a 2019 Kate Tufts finalist. Daye most recently was awarded a 2019 Diana and Simon Raab Writer-In-Residence at UC Santa Barbara and a 2019 Whiting Writers Award.

Ashleigh Bryant Phillips is from rural Woodland, North Carolina. Hailed in The New Yorker as "elegant and mesmerizing" and "brimming with dark and romantic details," her debut collection, Sleepovers, won the C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize. It was also longlisted for The Story Prize and is forthcoming in Italian in 2022. Ashleigh's stories have appeared in The Paris Review, The Oxford American and others. Her essays have appeared in Our State and Lit Hub. She teaches fiction at West Virginia Wesleyan College's low residency MFA and is a Southern editor for Joyland Magazine.

Destiny Hemphill (she/her) is a ritual worker and poet based in Durham, NC. A recipient of fellowships from Naropa University’s Summer Writing Program, Callaloo, Tin House, and Kenyon’s Writers Workshop, she is the author of the poetry chapbook Oracle: a Cosmology (Honeysuckle Press, 2018).

the concern. reading series: a year of poetry on the attic 506 rooftop, june 2021-june 2022, the book

Now in print: a book dedicated to the past year of poetry readings at Attic 506, including poems by 24 of the writers who shared their work on the rooftop. Thanks to Dylan Angell for curating & emcee-ing, as well as the Orange County Arts Commission for the project support. All participants in the book will receive a free copy of the book. It will be sold to the public for $4 a copy starting Friday, June 9 at the reading itself. The writers included in this book are: Dylan Angell, Susannah Simpson, Marta Núñez Pouzols, Minori Sanchiz-Fung, Laura Jaramillo, emilio Taiveaho Pelaez, Loan Tran, Olivia Gone, Sam Lineberger, Nina Oteria, Aimee (Harrison) Wright Clow, Fred Joiner, Chris Catanese, Skylar Gudasz, Joe Fletcher, Amanda Bennett, Max McDonough, Ted Rees, Lauren Hunter, Riley Ratcliff, Michael Cavuto, Travis Smith, Ryan Eckes.

The Concern Reading Series: February 2022

The next Concern Reading Series will take place on Sunday, February 13, 2022, doors open 3pm and the reading begins at 4pm, on the rooftop at Attic 506 in Chapel Hill. Readers include Skylar Gudasz, Joe Fletcher, Amanda Bennett, Max Mc Donough. Curated by Dylan Angell. Thank you to Orange County Arts Commission for the support.

The Concern Reading Series pamphlets

Beginning with the reading that took place in October, we are now publishing a tri-fold pamphlet with a poem or writing piece from each writer taking part. For the October 8 reading that took place at Attic 506 in Chapel Hill, the readers were emilio Taiveaho Peláez, Loan Tran, Olivia Gone and Sam Lineberger, line up curated by Dylan Angell Pamphlets are available at the Attic 506 location when open and also shipping free with web orders while supplies last. This project was funded in part by the Orange County Commission.

poetry books in the age of corona : a conversation

UNC LSP presents:

‘poetry books in the age of corona: a conversation’ (with emilio taiveaho peláez, josé felipe alvergue & orvokki crosby). The discussion will include reading from ‘landskips,’ a new book of poetry by emilio taiveaho peláez, available soon through our store.

30 september 2020, 5pm eastern time live on zoom

email or message for zoom link

Contempo, a leftist leaning literary newspaper from Chapel Hill, 1931-1934

The rare book collection at Wilson Library at UNC-Chapel Hill has most, if not all issues of Contempo, a literary newspaper that was published in Chapel Hill from 1931-1934.  The beautifully designed, and provocative newspaper was founded and published by Milton A. Abernathy and Anthony Buttitta in their dorm room at UNC, along with fellow students Shirley Carter, Phil Liskin and Vincent Garoffolo.  The "little magazine" was a literary and social commentary newspaper that included book reviews, poetry, community news, and articles on social issues like injustice, racism, censorship, sex and morality.  It leaned toward anarchism, socialism & communism in its tone.  The short-lived newspaper included articles and poetry by some big names in writing at the time as well, like William Faulkner (even a whole issue by him), Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, D.H. Lawrence, Samuel Beckett, E.E. Cummings, T.S. Eliot, Langston Hughes, Aldous Huxley, James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw, Upton Sinclair & more.

Interestingly too, the founders of the paper founded the Intimate Bookshop in their dorm room which subsequently moved to East Franklin Street in Chapel Hill and lived there for close to 60 years with a rich history all its own.

Scroll through some snapshots of the paper:

Only US stockist for Dog-Ear bookmark magazine from the UK

Happy to currently be the only stockist in the US for Dog-Ear, a bookmark shaped folding magazine from the UK.  It includes poems, witticisms & illustrations.  "It believes in the benefits of playful creativity, especially reading, writing and drawing. It's open to everyone."  And in that way, it's free!  Every purchase from The Concern will receive a Dog-Ear Issue 8 while supplies last, you can also grab one at our new corner outpost at Lump Gallery starting in February.

Dog-Ear is a 'Community Interest Company', meaning all of their profits go back to their business, back issues can be purchased on their website.