VOTM: What’s the most unusual experience you’ve had at a reading?
O’NEIL: I was at LitCrawl in San Francisco preparing to read an essay about a horrible sexual encounter that went very wrong (think bruised, broken, and swelling male genitalia – mine!) when the woman from the very same said sexual encounter walks into the reading… And yes, I read the essay.
Patrick O’Neil is a former junkie bank robber and the author of the memoir, Gun Needle Spoon (Dzanc Books), and the excerpted in part French translation, Hold-Up (13e Note Editions). His writing has appeared in numerous publications, including: Juxtapoz, Salon.com, The Weeklings, Razorcake, The Nervous Breakdown, and Out of the Gutter. He is an editor for the NYC-to-California-transplant-post-beat-pre-apocalyptic art, writing, and music anthology: Sensitive Skin Magazine. He has been nominated twice for Best of the Net, and is a regular contributor to the recovery website AfterPartyMagazine. Patrick O’Neil holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles, lives in Hollywood, California, and teaches at AULA’s inspiration2publication program, and Los Angeles Valley College.
Come see Patrick perform at Book Show in Highland Park on Friday, August 21 at 7:30pm.