The Great Write Off

Dear Writers, Readers, Patrons of the Arts and Protectors of Youth,

This year, in honor of the the Neutral Zone's Short Story Workshop, the State of the Book, and most importantly, my friend and fellow poet Angel Nafis' upcoming book release tour,  I will be participating in the creative marathon of authors young and old known as THE GREAT WRITE OFF (official link here). I will, on October 3rd-5th, be writing for charity, specifically the literary arts programs at the Neutral Zone, Ann Arbor's Teen Center, in an attempt to help it reach its goal of raising $5,000. This money will be used to  fund instructors, visiting guest authors, publications, public readings and field trips that benefit hundreds of young people in the Ann Arbor community each year. To that end, I pledge myself  to the 5-10-15 challenge, which I made up, and which goes as follows: By the end of October 5th (the end of the Great Write Off), I will write a minimum of

5 discrete pieces of writing–poems, short stories, essays etc.– which together comprise no less than
10 pages of writing, for which I hope to get at least
15 people to pledge 5, 10, or 15 dollars (or really any amount, it's for the kids).

I have already worked out with Jeff Kass that if I can raise $150 (or 15 people at 10$ a pledge, or 1$ per page written), then he will cover the the entry fee for me to submit a manuscript to the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition, a prestigious contest which, because of my upcoming book release, I will no longer be eligible for after this year. You may be thinking right now "That sounds great Gahl– I love both your work and the literary well-being of our city's youth. But what can I do to help?" Simple! There two easy ways to help Jeff, the Neutral Zone, and myself reach our respective goals:

1. If you have 5-15$ (or more... or less) to spare, you can become one of my sponsors and make a pledge. Go to the Neutral Zone's team pledge page, hit the "contribute now" now button and fill out the info. Under step 4 in the comment box write "I'm sponsoring Gahl Liberzon" or something along those lines so they know the pledge was sponsoring me.

2. If you don't have any scrilla on the side but would still like to help out, then repost this on your facebook wall, send a message with a link to your friends, parents, and friends' parents, or otherwise get the word out. We got six days left–let's raise some money, raise our pens, and write our way to greatness!
Charitably yours,

Gahl Liberzon

Upcoming Show: Kzoo College, 9/22

Hey all,

If any of you are in the Kalamazoo area, I'm going to be performing at Kalamazoo College this Saturday as part of their "Me in the Mirror: Identity Poetics" event along with my good friend and fellow poet/child of presidentially-cynnical 1st generation immigrants, Aimeé Lê. She is absolutely incredible, and I'm thrilled to finally be able to headline with her again (we haven't shared billing since my chapbook release back in 2007). Also, since it will be the day after a minor medical procedure, you may get to see me rocking a medical head dressing, which I imagine will be ludicrously large. You can check out the facebook event page for more info,  or peep the flier (reproduced below).
Westward we go,
Gahl