This Week on Friday Live: Wallace Cleaves, Lena Mahmoud, and Dave Gregory

It’s a Dog-eared Dog World

Books mark our time with words, with the meditative turning of pages, with the reassurance that what begins ends. And we each leave behind a unique biblio-thumbprint: Rumpled corners, dog-eared pages, marginalia scrawled hither and yon, spines peeling like the cracked bark of old-growth cedar. Or perhaps our books are left smooth and sleek and crisp, untrampled by a literary ninja. 

Whatever your style, for many readers, nothing is more delicious than settling into a cozy nook in a quiet house, tea or coffee or cocktail at one’s side, and cracking open — or gently parting — the pages of a new book.

Alas, whether facing a full-to-bursting home or the ceaseless demands of life as an essential worker, for many of us that quiet corner has become an elusive and precious commodity. So we retreat behind closed doors to a bedroom, or an office, or, let’s be honest, a bathroom, and grab a few moments’ peace. Or we wait for the others to leave.

The very first lines of the very first story in the very first issue of Pulp Literature capture this rare thrill:

Sitting on the edge of the bed now, listening. A door opened, shut, someone has come and gone, that much is certain.*

Get a few pages in while you can!

Whether you are feeling rumpled or torn or trampled, solid or safe or intrepid, we wish you many quiet moments to breathe, to read, to recover. 

(*From ‘Where the Angels Wait’ by CC Humphreys)

Friday’s live line-up

Every Friday, from 10:00-10:30am pacific, we are livestreaming readings featuring three authors who will read their work and answer questions from the audience. This week on Friday Live, we bring you Wallace Cleaves, Lena Mahmoud, and Dave Gregory.

Wallace Cleaves

Wallace Cleaves is an Associate Professor of Teaching and Associate Director in the University Writing Program at the University of California at Riverside.  His main responsibilities include First-Year Writing and the TA development program. He has also taught courses in Medieval, Renaissance, and Native American literature at Pomona College in Claremont, at Cal State Fullerton, and at UC Riverside. He is a member of the Gabrieleno/Tongva Native American Nation, the indigenous peoples of the Los Angeles area, and has served in a variety of positions on the tribal council and for the  Kuruvungna Springs Foundation. Recent publications include: A Student’s Companion for The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing, and work on the 10th, 11th, and 12th editions of the St. Martin’s Guide to Writing including drafting the Instructor’s Manual for that text. His short story ‘A Parable of Things that Crawl and Fly’, co-authored with Graham Robert Scott, appeared in Pulp Literature Issue 25.

Lena Mahmoud

Lena Mahmoud is the author of the novel Amreekiya, an Arab American Book Award winner, a finalist for the Louise Meriwether First Book Prize, and one of Foreword’s Four Phenomenal Debut Novels. Her short story ‘The Thieving Pot’ appeared in Pulp Literature Issue 23. She has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes. For more information please visit lenamahmoud.com or follow her Twitter and Instagram @lena_mubsutina.

Dave Gregory

Dave Gregory is a Canadian writer who worked on cruise ships and sailed the world for nearly two decades. His short story  ‘Joran’s Song’ is forthcoming in Pulp Literature Issue 27. Dave is an Associate Editor with the Los Angeles-based Exposition Review and his work has appeared in numerous literary publications including Typehouse, Firewords, and The Nashwaak Review. Please follow him on Twitter @CourtlandAvenue or at courtlandavenue.wordpress.com.

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