Write Club Atlanta celebrates five years of literary bloodshed
The beloved reading series has got plans for its fifth anniversary.
Five years! Congrats, guys. When you first started Write Club, did you foresee a go this long? Or such popularity?
Myke Johns: Oh hell no. Doing a monthly show kind of keeps you thinking of the more immediate future—next month's show, maybe the month after that. That said, the first show in June 2011 had a really great turnout, complete with a thunderstorm that briefly took out the power in the theater in the middle of Suehyla El-Attar's piece. It was punk rock and it was exciting and people seemed to really get into the spirit of the show. So while we probably weren't thinking, "Oh yeah, this thing's gonna go forever," we were pretty optimistic that we'd at least make it for maybe a year.
Nicholas Tecosky: Honestly, in the hour leading up to the first show, I was pretty certain that we were going to really screw this one up. And be asked to not come back. Not because we had actually done anything wrong, per se, but because the audience would get a good look at us and ask us who the hell we thought we were to be yelling at them. And I didn't really have an answer for that. I'm still kind of waiting for someone to ask. It makes my neck sweat.
What did you learn about reading, writing, throwing events, people in general during WCA's run?
M.J.: As far as writing and reading goes, we learned just how different writing for a live audience vs. writing for the page is — they're like different species of animal. Luckily, we've managed to find a lot of really talented writers who figured that out a lot faster than I did.
Neither Nick or I had much experience booking shows before WCA. Doing it out of necessity, we found out how important it is to go out there and meet new people. You can invite people in all day and all night, but going to them — to their readings, to where they live — builds stronger bridges.
N.T.: Before we got started with this, we were already doing shows where we yelled at people. We met working out at Stone Mountain, doing seven-minute musicals for people on the train. I hosted a daily pie eating competition in the autumn where half of the show itself was yelling at the contestants and the audience. And Myke came from a rock-'n'-roll band where berating his crowds was sort of part of the act. I think a major takeaway for both of us is that people really seem to like to get yelled at by dudes with chips on their shoulders. I'd suspected that a while back, but WCA really confirmed those suspicions.
Also, per Myke's answer: Booking is hard. You've got to keep going out there and listening for voices you haven't heard. Otherwise, the show gets stale for you and the audience. If it ever gets too easy, you're probably not doing it right.
How do you feel the series keeps getting better? What kind of efforts do you sink into the organization to prevent it from going stale?
M.J.: We've recommitted ourselves to what we were doing in WCA's first year: going out to other shows to find writers new to us. Exposing yourself to amazing writers producing mind-blowing work helps to keep this exciting for us.
N.T.: A nice side-effect of going out and meeting new folks is building the long-term camaraderie that this kind of event fosters among writers. More than half of the people I hang out with regularly I've met in the last five years through this scene. I'd like to think that trend will continue.
What kind of treats do you have planned for the big birthday bash?
M.J.: We're doing a three-way bout! We did one at our third birthday show, and that was fun. This time, we've got Topher Payne versus Suehyla El-Attar versus Jason Mallory. All three of those people have completely different writing styles and all three are absolute killers on-stage, so the carnage will be a lot of fun to watch.
N.T.: We've also got a whiskey toast for all of our past combatants who show up. Because they surely don't drink enough as it is.
M.J: We invited some of our very favorite writers to do this with us. Cynthia Oquendo, Brooke Hatfield, Theroun Patterson, Mauree Culberson ... and Theresa Davis will be writing something to dedicate the evening. You're going to be pretty pissed if you miss this.
How is Write Club gonna look in another five years?
M.J.: We'll probably be a mixed-use development long before then. But we're gonna go down shouting.
N.T.: I'm hoping to get a job at the Write Club-themed tapas joint downstairs from the Lofts at Highland Inn. But I think the competition will be pretty fierce for that position. We'll probably just have to all move out to the suburbs and start over. I bet Cobb County's taxpayers would build us a new Ballroom.