Join me on July 17 at Harlot in San Francisco for Opium Magazine’s first-ever West Coast Literary Death Match. I’ll be competing against the rapscallion Stephen Elliott, leggy Joyce Maynard, and mercurial Sam Hurwitt in a fight to the finish of the (sort of) literary variety.

Howard Junker (ZYZZYVA), Beth Lisick (Everyone into the Pool), and Jon Wolanske (Killing My Lobster) will judge us on “literary merit, performance, and intangibles” before the two lucky finalists move on to a heart-palpitating game of Stab a Hole in Nebraska. Each of us will be representing a literary magazine–McSweeney’s, Canteen, Kitchen Sink, & Fiction Attic–so if we fail the magazine will take the humiliation. Oh, wait, I’m the editor of Fiction Attic, so unless I can pull out the poise and locate Nebraska with a knife, I’ll be hanging my head in shame all the way back to the avenues.Details here.