Seattle, Ep. 2

November 11, 2009—The Literary Death Match return to Seattle (sponsored by Against Nature) was an absurdly fun affair, with playwright Kelleen Conway Blanchard scoring a narrow 6-3 victory over Stacey Levine in a battle of "Nonsensical Animal Toss" that featured each author throwing tiny plastic animals (Blanchard thew wild animals; Levine tossed animals from the farm) through the mouths of three famous writers: Virginia Woolf (3 points), Ernest Hemingway (2 points) and Sherman Alexie's gaping maw (1 point). 

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Oxford, Ep. 1

November 4, 2009 — The Literary Death Match's expansion to Oxford's Corner Club was a stroke of genius (the genius brought to you by co-producers Xander Cansell & Badaude), as a wildly hard-fought battle of Musical Chairs led to poetic raconteur George Chopping (author of collections Derailed & Shelf Life) being crowned champion, as his three-man team overcame his early exit to overcome co-finalist Miranda Ward's trio of belles. 

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London, Ep. 3

November 3, 2009 — Literary Death Match London, Ep. 3 at Old Queen's Head was a stylish and whimsical ceremony that illustriously ended when The Idler fictionist Matthew De Abaitua narrowly beat out Penned in the Margins masterful rep Ross Sutherland in a wild Hoopstravaganza. The clash featured both hastily wadding up pages of the Daily Mail and firing them through a Picador-backboarded basketball hoop. With the competition tied at 3 points apiece, De Abaitua swished his money-ball shot to take home the Literary Death Match championship!

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Austin, Ep. 1

October 31, 2009—by Tyler Stoddard Smith—The Texas Book Festival was a veritable feast of literary delights, none more savory than the “boot-up-your-ass” brawl during the Lone Star State’s first Literary Death Match in Austin. Festivalgoers may have been a bit bemused at learning the forum for the LDM was not a bar called "The Sanctuary" (as I first thought) but in fact an actual sanctuary housed in the First United Methodist Church. However, the proceedings were as bare-knuckled and bawdy as they come, House o’ the Lord be damned.

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NYC, Ep. 19

October 29, 2009—The Literary Death Match NYC, Ep. 19 at Bowery Poetry Club was a masterfully literary event with a dress-up flop of a finale that had Robert Lopez (author of Part of the World; representing Mixer) pulling out a narrow victory over his equally exceptional co-finalist, Sarah Jane Stratford, as each "raced" to produce a costume from a smattering of fun-time elements, but neither (disappointingly) utilized the beard.  

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SF, Ep. 22

Sequins, audience members getting high on stage, and a supersized game of local-lit card shark made for Literary Death Match SF, Ep. 22. LDM regulars as well as Litquake X attendees filled Verdi Club to witness the literary merit, performance, and intangibility of four readers before James Nestor took home the gold for his drug-related genius and card-guessing skills. 

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Paris, Ep. 1

The Literary Death Match descended on Paris' Le Reservoir with a brilliant result, as Mohamed Razane was a more successful knifesmith than Max Monnehay in a shockingly close game of Stab a Hole in Liechtenstein. In front of a confused crowd of 165, Razane was awarded the Literary Death Match medal, and a secure place in the event's storied history. 

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NYC, Ep. 18

Literary Death Match NYC at Bowery Poetry Club put the needle on the lit record for its 18th episode, with the inaugural music-themed LDM. Opened with a stellar, nostalgia inducing set by the Mountain Goats' member (and Intangibles judge) Franklin Bruno. Todd Zuniga's replacement host, Liam Gallagher, failed to show citing a sore throat (sources have him scarfing down some fish and chips outside of Shoreditch earlier that afternoon).

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London, Ep. 2

Last night was a historic one for the Literary Death Match: London, Ep. 2 marked our 50th-ever episode (wow!), and featured the youngest champion in the series' history, as 17-year-old Ashna Sarkar out-scribbled co-finalist Tom Chivers in a wild, hotly-contested Sharpie-based finale of Sketch-a-Judge™ to snare London's second Literary Death Match crown.

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Raleigh, Ep. 1

September 15, 2009—Raleigh’s Literary Death Match debut was a night full of “treasured masturbatory fantasies,” unicorns and rock n’ roll as Jodi Lynn Villers captured the crown through a highly imaginative interpretation of the cafeteria scene in Mean Girls ("Would you like me to assign someone to butter your muffin?"). Co-finalist Scott McClanahan also delivered a riveting performance of the gym scene in Clueless ("I doubt I’ve even worked off the calories in a stick of Care Free Gum"), but Villers’ combination of southern charm and naughty hockey fantasies had stolen too many hearts that evening as the audience screamed for the winner.

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