Saturday, September 5th, I went over to Annabell’s, a bar in the Highland Square area, to check out The Big Big Mess. Currently run by Katie Merz and Mike Krutel (featured above), The Big Big Mess is a monthly reading series that highlights some of the area’s best authors.

They typically choose two or more people to come and read their work over the span of three hours. In between the readings, they give away prizes through a raffle as well as drink.

I wasn’t able to stay very long, but what I did see, I enjoyed. The September authors were John Buckley, Casey Nichols, Chris Drabick. Every event page provides a thorough description of each author and their work, so the audience will know what to expect for the evening. I’ve provided the last description below:

“John Buckley is the author of five books of poetry: two chapbooks, Breach Birth (2011) and Leading an Aquamarine Shoat by Its Tail (2012), from Alternating Current Press; a solo collection, Sky Sandwiches (2012), from Anaphora Literary Press; and two collaborations with Martin Ott, Poets’ Guide to America (2012) and Yankee Broadcast Network (2014), from Brooklyn Arts Press. His poems have been selected to appear in Barrow Street, The Carolina Quarterly, Evergreen Review, Map Literary, Narrative, ZYZZYVA, and elsewhere. He holds graduate degrees in creative writing (poetry) and English (literature) from, respectively, the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan and San Francisco State University.

Casey Nichols’ work appears in Requited, Arsenic Lobster, Bayou Magazine, and Tupelo Quarterly. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Bowling Green State University where she was a Devine Fellowship finalist and worked as assistant poetry editor for Mid-American Review. She now edits for Slice and is Poetry Editor of Flyover Country Review, a journal born in and of the Midwest. She was recently chosen as a writer in residence with the Wick Poetry Center where she brought poetry outreach to Akron City Schools in Akron, Ohio. She lives in a cemetery in Kent, Ohio with her fiancé and piles of midcentury furniture they sell online.

Chris Drabick has published works in the Cleveland Free Times, Cleveland Scene, Hear/Say Magazine, Under the Radar Magazine and Pitchfork. He holds a BA in Film Studies from Bowling Green State University, where he also pursued graduate work in the Department of Popular Culture, focusing on baseball and popular music. Living in Chicago during the height of the alt-country movement, Drabick forged a career as a freelance music journalist and retail manager. Drabick resides in a small house in west Akron with his wife, child, three mostly well-behaved cats, and a large vinyl collection.” (Source)

The next reading will be October 3rd and will feature James Longley, David James Miller, Abi Bechtel. If you would like to know more information, head on over to the Facebook page located here.

Thanks for reading,