Creative at the Cannery just won “Best Intellectual Drunk Fun” in Philadelphia Magazine’s 2019 Best of Philly issue, and frankly, we couldn’t have said it better ourselves! We could not be more proud. Thanks, Matt Jakubowski + Christine Kendall, the reading’s organizers, and thanks to all the authors and writers that have read, and everyone with enough courage - liquid or otherwise - to partake in the Open Mic.

Time for another round of our beloved #CreativeAtTheCannery, the only prose reading series in West Philadelphia, and one of the most inclusive (yes, that includes the audience, too) literary events in the city. Our bi-monthly readings showcase incredible local writers who are talented wordsmiths in a range of fields, from university professors to published writers to journalists, and everything in between, in every sort of combination. September’s featured readers are Quinn Eli, Tim Fitts, Katherine Locke, and Siwaraya Rochanahusdin.

Come for the reading, and stay for the Open Mic - bring your work to read, or cheer on a friend.

RSVP ON FACEBOOK HERE

QUINN ELI

Quinn D. Eli grew up in the Bronx, NY, and lives now in Philadelphia. A playwright, dramaturg and essayist, he is the co-author of Homecoming: The Story of African-American Farmers, a companion volume to the PBS film. His short plays have appeared in Best American Ten-Minute Plays and been produced throughout the country. Along with the playwrights Jacqueline Goldfinger and Michael Hollinger, he is a co-founder of the Foundry, a local initiative for emerging theater artists, administered by PlayPenn. The two-time recipient of Fellowships in Literature from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Eli has served as a Playwright-in-Residence at Philadelphia’s Plays & Players Theatre, where he currently sits on the Advisory Board.

TIM FITTS

Tim Fitts is a short story writer and novelist.  He is the author of Hypothermia, a collection of short stories, and The Soju Club, which was published as a Korean translation in South Korea. Fitts also serves on the editorial staff of the Painted Bride Quarterly is a member of the Liberal Arts Department at the Curtis Institute of Music.  His short stories have appeared in journals such as the Gettysburg Review, Granta, and Shenandoah, among others. He holds an M.F.A. from the University of Maryland.

KATHERINE LOCKE

Katherine Locke lives and writes in Philadelphia with their feline overlords and their addiction to chai lattes. They are the author of The Girl With the Red Balloon, a 2018 Sydney Taylor Honor Book and 2018 Carolyn W. Field Honor Book, and The Spy With the Red Balloon. They not-so-secretly believe that most Young Adult books are fairytales in disguise. They can be found online at KatherineLockeBooks.com and @bibliogato on Twitter and Instagram.

SIWARAYA ROCHANAHUSDIN

Siwaraya Rochanahusdin is multi-disciplinary artist and writer exploring the nuanced multitudes of underrepresented communities. She is the co-founder of The Decades, a multi-generational women of color writing collective based in the Philadelphia area, representative of the West Coast, East Coast, Midwest, and South. Siwaraya is an alum of voices of Our Nations Artists. She is currently working on her first book and virtual reality animation about an evil cottonball named Ngar.