VOTM: What’s the most unusual experience you’ve had at a reading?
BAUMAN: At my own literary event– For my first book, I read at the Happy Endings series in New York. I downed 2 vodkas before I did my 7 minute reading read and 2 after I finished, and then with my high school friend Peter Bricken, we reprised our roles in Kiss Me, Kate and sang “Brush Up Your Shakespeare.” I’m sure I was off key and who the hell knows what else, but it sure was odd. And kinda stupidly hilarious. And will never happen again.
At a reading in New York,, I can’t even remember for who–sorry, that’s embarrassing–a woman came up to me and said, “You’re Madison Smartt Bell, aren’t you?” I politely said, No. I had no idea what Bell looked like or even if we were close in age. She kept saying to me and others around “Why are you lying to me?” To get away form her, a friend and I went around the corner to a bar and and we’re sitting there just bullshitting, drinking and a completely different woman came up to me and said “You’re Alexander Cockburn, I love reading your stuff in the Nation.” Again I said, No, I’m not him, and Cockburn is probably 15 years older than me and he’s Irish and I’m a Jew from Queens. Listen to my accent.” She said, “You’re snarky in your columns and now I know you’re snarky in person.”
Bruce Bauman is an instructor in the CalArts MFA Writing Program and the Senior Editor of Black Clock literary magazine. Library Journal called Bauman’s new novel, Broken Sleep “[A] plangent tour de force of epic proportions…” Bookworm’s Michael Silverblatt said Broken Sleep “is funny, heartbreaking and beautiful.” Shelf Awareness wrote it’s a “mind-bending work of fiction that entwines generations and continents, each character represents contemporary life’s most existential crises.” Booklist called Bauman’s first novel And The Word Was “a magnificent debut, smart and intense, and riveting.” Among his awards are a UNESCO/Aschberg award in Literature, Durfee Foundation grant and a City of Los Angeles Award in literature.
Come see Bruce read at Book Show in Highland Park on Saturday, June 11 at 7pm.