KGB Bar

Hosted by DW Gibson,
Alexander Chee (US, Fiction)
Alexander is the author of the novels Edinburgh and the forthcoming The Queen of the Night, due out in 2011. He is the recipient of the Whiting Writers Award, the NEA in Fiction, a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship and residencies from MacDowell and The Hermitage. He has taught fiction writing at Wesleyan University, the New School and Amherst College, and will teach at the Iowa Writers Workshop in Spring 2011. He is at work on his third novel.

Nir Baram (Israel, Fiction/Nonfiction)
Born in Jerusalem, Nir graduated with an MA in Literature from Tel-Aviv University. He has published four books, and was nominated for the Sapir Prize (The Israeli Booker award) in 2007. Nir won the Prime Minister Award for Hebrew literature in 2010.
He serves as editor of the Classical World Wide Series in Am-Oved publishing house and writes for the Ha’aretz Newspaper.

Perihan Mağden (Turkey, Fiction)
Perihan was born in Istanbul. She majored in psychology and traveled extensively in Asia. She published first novel, Messenger Boy Murders, in 1991. Perihan recently left her post writing a regular column for over 12 years. She has five novels that have been translated to twelve languages.

Tom Burke (US, Fiction) Born in Chicago, Thomas is now the Program Manager of the Chinua Achebe Center for African Writers and Artists at Bard College. In the past he served as Director of Summer Literary Seminars in Kenya, Assistant Director of SLS in Russia, and as the Event and Promotions Manager at Words without Borders, an online magazine of international literature in translation. He received an MFA from UMASS Amherst and his work has appeared in Tin House and The Brooklyn Rail, among other publications, and is forthcoming in the St. Petersburg Review and the Collagist.

Matthew Barber (US, Playwriting) Matthew is a Los Angeles native currently living New York City.  A UCLA graduate in film and theatre history, he enjoyed careers in arts journalism and public relations before turning to playwriting.  His stage play Enchanted April premiered on Broadway in 2003, receiving the John Gassner Award for Outstanding New American Play and Drama League and Tony Award nominations for Best Play.  Matthew is presently at work on a new stage play, Eleanor & Abel, and an original screenplay, Independence.

Susana García Iglesias (Mexico, Fiction)
Born in Mexico City’s historic center, Susana a is the inaugural recipient of the Aura Estrada Prize, which she won for her fiction submission, Barracuda. It was praised by jury president Margo Glantz for “the enormous force and charisma of a risk-taking writing whose fury ignites like pyromania.” Susana has worked as a bartender and dog stylist; her interests include: mixology, photography, old cars, high speed, rock and roll, and literature.

Mallery Avidon (US, Playwriting) Mallery’s plays have been developed or produced by Soho Rep, Target Margin Theater, Clubbed Thumb, Little Theater @ The New Dixon Place, ART/NY, Bee Sting Theater Company, The Pavement Group, Live Girls! Theater, angry BLVD, Strike Anywhere Productions & Cornish College of the Arts. She was a member of the 07/08 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. Mallery holds a BFA in Original Works from Cornish College and an MFA in Playwriting from Brown University.

Peter Rønnov-Jessen (Denmakr, Fiction) After teaching English Literature at the University of Aarhus, Denmark for a number of years, Peter made his literary debut in 1985 with Unnatural Intercourse with Sheep (’Unaturlig omgang med får’), a collection of short stories. Since then he has published ten novels, of which Classical Civilization (’Oldtidskundskab’) is the latest.

About the Series: KGB Bar Sunday Night Fiction

The KGB Bar Sunday Night Fiction showcases the finest in contemporary fiction from new and emerging writers.

Suzanne Dottino/fiction curator,