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The final event on the Vermin on the Mount + VLAK tour was held at Power Lunches on Kingsland Road in Hackney and it was a massive event with over a dozen poets and prose performers. Once again, I served as guest emcee and kicked things off with Thor “The First Shall Be Last and the Last Shall Be First” Garcia, who read from his story “Eat the Rotten Eggs.” The poet Tim Adkins read a single long poem that appears in VLAK and Ulli Freer followed with more poetry. VLAK founding editor Louis Armand read from The Rube Goldberg Variations and was followed by Richard Makin who celebrated the official launch of his book, Mourning, the third in a trilogy. I read from Forest of Fortune and David Vichnar read a brief excerpt from Philippe Sollers’s H. After giving away a few Vermin +VLAK t-shirts and selling some books, we pressed on. London poet Nat Raha started the second half of the evening with a selection of poems and was followed by Seattle writer Lou Rowan. Stewart Home read some very short poems while standing on his head (seriously). Sean Bonney read a police protest poem and was followed by the poet Will Rowe. Jeff Hilson closed out the evening with a reading of a poem about boats, which he dedicated to your salty and wayward host. We packed up our books, at some kebabs and piled into a black taxi to begin the long journey home.

Vermin on the Mount was honored to be a guest of the Prague Microfest, which kicked off with the launch of VLAK 5, the biggest, most audacious, and last issue of the international magazine of arts and letters published by Litteraria Pragensia Center for Critical and Cultural Theory at Charles University in Prague. Vermin on the Mount + VLAK was held at NoD an experimental art space just steps away from the main square. Olga Pek, a member of VLAK’s editorial collective and festival organizer, introduced the first a reading of Philippe Sollers’s H, a unpunctuated text inspired by the 1968 student uprising in Paris, published for the first time in English by Equus Press. Excerpts from H were read in French and English by Veronica X and David Vichnar. David then took over as emcee and introduced the playwright Morgan Childs who staged a reading of a new short dramatic work in which a character named Jim chews much too loudly. This was followed by a short film by Ken Nash who read from his short story Brain Harvest. English musician and writer Phil Shoenfelt was joined by Arwen Bird who channelled Sophia Disgrace (a last-minute scratch) for a performance of Kamikaze Skull. After a brief musical interlude by Phil Shoenfeld and David Babka, Louis Armand read from Cairo, Jim Ruland read from Forest of Fortune and Thor Garcia read from a new work, “Eat the Rotten Eggs,” which appears in VLAK. Damian Ober reading from Doctor Benjamin Franklin’s Dream America was beamed in from Massachusetts. The jazz ensemble Happy Funeral closed out the evening and DJ Count  Portmon entertained the afterparty deep into the night.

Vermin on the Mount kicked off 2015 with its first reading in Book Show’s new location in Highland Park. A packed house assembled on a rare rainy night in Los Angeles for a night of irreverent readings by Ashley Perez, Samuel W Gailey, Natashia Deón, Wendy Ortiz and your host Jim Ruland. The readings were followed by a musical performance by Nellie Bly. Poster art by Art Fuentes and tactical support by Razorcake. No one was harmed but all were bitten. Click above for images from the show.