Instagrammers-in-Residence: APRIL
Every year, the Authors, Publishers and Readers of Independent Literature Festival hosts some of the best (and most original!) readings and events in the literary world. This year, they celebrated their fourth year and gave us an inside look as our fourth Instagrammers-in-Residence on @actualpants! Kinda perfect, don’t you think? Here’s what we got to see:
Founded in 2011, APRIL (Authors, Publishers and Readers of Independent Literature) is an annual festival of literature that occurs for one week every March. The organization has hosted more than 100 readers since the first festival. APRIL’s staff members compare the organization to your enthusiastic friend shoving a new book into your hand. They feature publishing outside of the mainstream and aim to curate fun, nontraditional events that are approachable to everyone, including people who wouldn’t normal see themselves as someone who goes to a reading. This year, APRIL hosted a literary seance, the fourth annual competitive storytelling competition “A Poet, a Playwright, a Novelist and a Drag Queen,” a book expo with nearly 60 presses, and brought out their 2nd Writer-in-Residence.
This is Americus, official spokes-cat of APRIL (Authors, Publishers and Readers of Independent Literature), a little nonprofit and annual literary festival in Seattle, which concluded yesterday but we’ll be recapping it all here this week. Over a single week, we heard from 30 readers, had a seance, an art show, a Twin Peaks party and a whole lot more.
We could tell you about our mission right now but this picture seemed more fitting.
Learn more about us by following us on Twitter @APRILfestSEA. (Photo by managing director @taraatkinsontaraatkinson, this week’s posts by media coordinator @north0fhere)
Here’s Shya Scanlon (APRIL’s 2nd ever Writer-in-Residence) with childhood friend and poet @emilykendalfrey getting goofy at our opening party.
Photo by Sunita Martini.
I guess we sort of had a recurring theme of animals this year?
This is Bruce the chihuahua in poodle drag as Basket. We were trying to summon the spirit of Alice B. Toklas the only way we knew how: embarrassed canines, Gertrude Stein masks, and performances from Joshua Beckman, Rebecca Brown and Jan Wallace.
Photo by APRIL managing director @taraatkinsontaraatkinson
Regram from @vignettesgallery “Whatever makes you not a statue,” a sculpture of porcelain and sod by @senorfitzz inspired by the poem by @extrahumanarchitecture
Three years running, we’ve collaborated with the incredible Vignettes Gallery. The curators ask about ten artists to respond to a book of poetry selected by APRIL. This year we chose YOU ARE NOT DEAD by Wendy Xu.
Each year, APRIL asks a poet, a playwright, a novelist and a drag queen to compete against each other by telling stories on a theme.
2015’s theme: Locusts and Other Plagues
2015’s champion: Princess Charming
We made a lot of pie and “borrowed” a lot of rhododendrons for the Twin Peaks reading with @shyascanlon @matthewjsimmons & Mary Miller.
Photo by @sunnymartini
Natalia Castells-Esquivel is a writer from Mexico based in Atlanta. Her poetry and nonfiction have been published in places like Santo y Seña, Loose Change, and Thought Catalog. She is currently a copywriter, Editor of Community Engagement for RealPants, and cofounder of StoryDrop, a city-wide literature collaboration. Also, she makes really good scrambled eggs. Really.
Latest posts by Natalia Castells-Esquivel (see all)
- Instagrammers-in-Residence: Alban Fischer - October 6, 2015
- Instagrammers-in-Residence: Jarod Roselló - September 30, 2015
- Instagrammers-in-Residence: Edward Mullany - September 21, 2015
