Atwater Crossing
3245 Casitas Ave.
Atwater Village, 90039
Ellen always wore her makeup slightly too bright, too happy and positive in color and emphasis, so that all it seemed to emphasize was how deeply she hated herself. At parties, she would run up and ask how I was doing, and if I said anything was going well—work, or love, or life at all—I could practically see her take the words as they exited my mouth and from them fashion an elaborate wooden stick with which to flog herself if all was not going equally well for her on that day.
—“An Incident with a Stick” by Aimee Bender, Slake: Los Angeles No. 4
SoCal fiction master Aimee Bender will read selections from her short stories and novels and discuss her craft with Slake editors on the ATX stage. Before and after her reading, local band the Socialistics, presented by event partner Spaceland Productions, will perform live sets.
Bender, who contributed a short story to Slake: Los Angeles No. 4, due in February, has had her short fiction published in Granta, Tin House, The Paris Review, and other publications. Her first collection of short stories, The Girl in the Flammable Skirt (1998) was a New York Times Notable Book. She published her most recent novel, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, in 2010.
The New York Times wrote that Bender “creates contemporary fairy tales, cushioned by goofy humor and a deep tenderness for her characters, that aren’t always as dark or as sinister as they initially appear. Her twinkling, chatty prose style carries the reader effortlessly over the road bumps of implausibility.”