SF, Ep. 33

September 10, 2010 — Steady Mike Adamick pulled a one-word victory over impassioned, high-fashioned Pam Benjamin in Literary Death Match 33 at the Elbo Room.  Adamick secured the win by not quite completing the dying words of Che Guevara: “Shoot coward, you are only going to kill a man!”

Fueled by foxy moxie and horsefeathers, co-hosts Alia Volz and comedienne Janine Brito, commanded the crowd’s attention with an absurdist homage to the alphabet that left Volz bleeding on the floor at Brito’s feet. Gertrude Stein would have proud to love these ladies!

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Beijing, Ep. 2

August 31, 2010 — The Literary Death Match's long-awaited (by us) return to China and The Bookworm Beijing was nothing short of masterwork, with the brilliant night finishing with a fake mustache/chopstick/cheap toy/basketball shootout finale that saw One Story representative John Leary claim a 3-1, closer-than-the-scoreboard-suggests victory over co-finalist and Shiva Naipaul prize-winner James Palmer. While the crowd cheered ecstatically, Leary was crowned victor. 

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NYC, Ep. 29

August 19, 2010 — We promised a hot and sticky night, and NYC, Ep. 29 did not disappoint! After a quick and dirty run through of the rules and regs, NYC Exec Producer Ann Heatherington assembled and dissembled judges Bruce Benderson (complete with high-tech nicotine distribution system), Michael Hearst of One Ring Zero (who sadly has never had a run-in with Geraldo Rivera), and Elna Baker (formerly Mormon, currently hilarious). As is LDM custom, the audience selected at random the first round readers, Melissa Petro (of Sex Work Matters: Power and Intimacy in the Sex Industry) and Benjamin Hale (The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore).

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Edinburgh, Ep. 1

August 10, 2010 — Deep in the recesses of a brilliant dungeon (a.k.a. The Banshee Labyrinth), the Literary Death Match's Edinburgh debut — teamed with Utter! at the Free Fringe — was pitch- and picture-perfect, with Scotland's homegrown Jenny Lindsay narrowly winning over Molly Naylor (Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think Of You) in a breakneck game of Pass-the-Haggis to take the LDM crown. 

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SF, Ep. 32

August 13, 2010 — In a finale seared into the collective unconscious of the Elbo Room crowd, poet D. A. Powell came from behind to snatch victory from novelist Tanya Egan Gibson. After citing the correct Shakespearean play, he claimed the winning point by thrusting his cactus forward to pop host M.G. Martin’s cherry (balloon). And yes, the exploding balloon did spew forth a distinctly blood-like liquid.

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London, Ep. 8

August 11, 2010 — A record-breakingly jam-packed Concrete crowd in Shoreditch witnessed the sitting skills of two of London's finest, as poet and Eric Gregory award-winner Jack Underwood's team outdueled Gavin James Bower's in a breakneck-paced game of Muzakal Chairs. The final score was 3-1, capturing Underwood the LDM title. 

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NYC, Ep. 28

July 15, 2010 — Literary Death Match went all poetical for the event's 28th-ever NYC-based episode, that saw a breakneck game of Shove the Balloon through the Hoola Hoop won by Jon Sands over C.S. Carrier by a 4-1 margin. 

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London, Ep. 7

July 14, 2010 — The Literary Death Match launch of Bret Easton Ellis' Imperial Bedrooms was a ridiculous success, as the '80s-themed evening at Concrete ended with a wild game of Guess the Musical Artist that saw novelist Lee Rourke (representing Melville House) narrowly claim victory over poet Clare Pollard (representing Bloodaxe Books) by a final score of 7-6.

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SF, Ep. 31

July 9, 2010 — LDM SF's 31st episode came to a creamy climax when spoken-word artist Kirya Traber raised her face, smeared with white goo, to the mic and gasped, “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times … A Tale of Two Cities!” narrowly out-pie-eating/quoting/citing memoirist Andre Perry for the crown.

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NYC, Ep. 27

June 17, 2010 — Brilliance reigned supreme at New York City's 27th-ever Literary Death Match, as four heavyweights slugged it out at Bowery Poetry Club, with The Rumpus founding editor Stephen Elliott out Card Shark'd co-finalist Rakesh Satyal by a final score of 2-1, avenging his LDM first-round knockout 90 episodes ago in San Francisco, and claiming the LDM crown. 

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