Fantastic time had by all at last night’s debut of The Rue de Fleurus Salon and Reading Series at The Foundry Gallery in Washington, DC. Thank you to all who came out! This debut salon featured a reading by Rick Moody. Among the stories he read was his popular piece “Boys.” Also, DC Writer and legend, Richard Peabody, kicked things off by reading a selection of poems. In addition to readings and panels by artists from DC, San Francisco, Baltimore, New York, and Malaysia, there were also a number of intermedia artworks on display in the Intermedia Room. For more photos of this event, visit the gallery.
“Named after the street on which Gertrude Stein lived in Paris, [Rue de Fleurus] is a throwback to the salon as intellectual gathering and art exhibition. “We really wanted to have a salon series that [included] not only reading but also art and intermedia,” Bryant [Rue de Fleurus Salon Director and Eckleburg‘s Editor in Chief] says. She hopes to be able to schedule at least three salons per year (one each in the fall, spring, and summer semesters) and move its location between Baltimore, Washington, and maybe New York. “We feel very strongly that music and intermedia, artwork, the text, the book—everything comes so beautifully together, so we wanted to do something along these lines.”
The salon is the latest milestone for Eckleburg Review, which made its debut in spring 2012. Moody judged its inaugural fiction contest, with Jill Birdsall winning the first Gertrude Stein Award for her short story “Salvage.” Birdsall’s story, along with second-place winner Michael Shum’s “In Defense of the Body” and third-place finisher Bird Marathe’s “Hello My Friend,” will appear in the 2013 print edition of the Eckleburg Review coming out this summer, which also includes contributions from Moody, poet Moira Egan, author and former Writing Seminars Professor Stephen Dixon, essayist and short-story writer Steve Almond, novelist Vallie Lynn Watson, and more.” (HUB)
Prior to the event, Rick Moody gave a private craft lecture to Rae Bryant’s graduate Fiction Workshop, part of the The Johns Hopkins University, M. A. in Writing Program, held on the JHU campus off Dupont Circle.
Attendees included acclaimed authors, artists, Johns Hopkins faculty, graduate students, local writers and DC art enthusiasts. #Rue de Fleurus Salon attendees say:
“Packed house here tonight for #rue with Rick Moody. If you’re gonna be warm, be so surrounded by art! http://4sq.com/1ajM6PQ.”
“Had a great time at Eckleberg’s #rue event with Rick Moody tonight! So happy my class was involved.”
“Richard Peabody giving a fabulous reading at the Foundry Gallery in DC #Rue pic.twitter.com/vGhi5Bd4b5.”
David Olimpio grew up in Texas, but currently lives and writes in Northern New Jersey. He believes that we create ourselves through the stories we tell, and that is what he aims to do every day. Usually, you can find him driving his pick-up around the Garden State with one of his dogs in the passenger seat and the other on the floor behind him. He has been published in The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review, The Good Men Project, Crate, Filthy Gorgeous Things, MiPOesias, and other places. You can find more about him here including links to his writing and photography. Also he tweets every day.
