PROFILE: Seemingly Mature Reading Series, Syracuse NY
Carving out one little corner of one little city for human flourishing
I didn’t know I should be self conscious about my voice in this until I read Libby Marchant’s dispatch - but let’s just go all-in with earnest-ness, because I am genuinely happy to be at readings, to be part of the creative sharing. Emotions might be embarrassing, but I feel them deeply.
The first Saturday in August, I walked into Liz Bowen’s backyard as it was full of golden, late afternoon light. Plentiful beef and vegan dogs were on the grill, supervised by Will. The wooden table on the deck had fruit salad and other desserts people brought. An aside - does anyone else call hot dogs glizzies, or is that still DMV specific? The word has quite an etymology, so I’ll let you, dear reader, look it up if you choose.
I ended up at Seemingly Mature, organized by Liz Bowen and Tim Carter in Syracuse, NY, driving up for the weekend from Baltimore, because I’d seen how lovely the event looked during the last Shabby Doll House book tour. A vestigial of alt lit, I’d been reading Liz for a long time and wanted an excuse to meet. I had a book out recently, Emotion Industry (Barrelhouse 2024) so if there ever is a reason to reach out to people you want to meet, that is a book tour. Just do it - and if you feel anxious, remember that you can scream from behind your computer after sending the email or DM.
Often, my favorite types of readings are events where I forget we’re supposed to have readers...even when I am one of the readers. Instead, you get to know other people who care about creativity. There are all sorts of opinions about readings floating around on the internet. My take is that a reading is a place where you can draw from reading styles, works in progress - be part of a collective conversation. I love going to them for the same reasons I like going to museums: learning about someone else’s art.
Back to the August moment.
There was a lovely vibe in the backyard. Upon arrival, I dropped my folding chair, seltzers, and Peabody Heights beers to say hello. Liz and Tim were just as warm as I expected! I was thrilled to also see Kristen Felicetti (go read her Hidden Palace encore!). You know when you meet someone once and get really nice energy? That was everyone I talked to in the backyard. During the official “event”, readers shared new, funny, vulnerable, captivating writing. The crowd was quiet, listening. We also kept cooing at Rosie, Liz and Will’s adorable dog.
After Seemingly Mature, I wanted to hear more from Liz and Tim about establishing the series. I wanted to talk more about building community. Essentially, this conversation is a way to extend time with writers I want to talk more with. Nick Sturm wrote a transformative poem in Zona Motel’s Alice Notley tribute and some of it was about how communities need archives - all these questions are heavily inspired by continuing to think about the importance of building spaces and then documenting what happens in these spaces.
TD: Tim, you mentioned this reading began as a way to introduce Liz and Will to Syracuse. I was overwhelmed by the positive welcome when I arrived in the backyard with a massive amount of bags. In a good way! Could you both talk more about how you concocted the series?
TC: There was actually a third person involved, Jonah Evans. He ended up moving to Philly soon after our first reading. Been trying to get a Philly group up here ever since! But what became apparent right away (to me) was that Liz was cool and knew many more people. I ended up meeting a lot of new people too.
LB: Hahaha, what? I contest this narrative… Tim (along with Jakob Maier, who was the only person I knew before I moved here) has really been my main conduit to the literary world in Syracuse. I was blown away the first time we hosted a reading, because I had moved here a month earlier and I didn’t have any friends yet. I had been in touch with Caroline Rayner, who was planning a book tour for The Moan Wilds and asked me where she should read in Syracuse. I had no idea but I offered up my backyard, and the series was born. Tim is still the one with more of a finger on the pulse of the local literary scene, whereas I’m always putting out feelers to see who might be traveling through upstate NY and interested in making a stop here. We try to always have at least one visiting reader alongside a roster of readers who are based here.
TD: What has surprised you both about organizing a series? When you were thinking about the format (cookout + readings), did you have references in mind that helped model the energy you wanted to create? As a writer that also lives with chronic illness, I also really appreciated it starting earlier in the day. Evenings are tough physically.
TC: I catch myself wanting to make this a bigger reading series and this surprises me. Why do I want that? No thanks to that little capitalist voice in my head that always wants to monetize or expand. Seems like a hassle, when all I want is to be in a backyard with some friends.
LB: Yeah, we’ve talked about this a little bit at various points—do we want to try to make this into more of an official enterprise? Do we want to try to get grant funding so maybe we can help cover travel for people who want to visit? But then funders would probably want us to be doing things in a more public or institutionalized way than we currently are. We don’t even have social media accounts for the series and it’s almost always a “DM for address” situation because we don’t want our home addresses floating around on the internet. And Tim and I both work full-time at pretty intense jobs, so we’re often kind of pulling things together last-minute in ways that work for a DIY series but maybe not if we started scaling up. But then again, our audience does seem to be getting bigger, and people keep asking how to follow us, etc. It’s a hard balance between trying not to be secretive or exclusive and also staying true to the more intimate, organic nature of the series, which is what drew us to doing this in the first place.
TD: Both of you have day jobs that connect you to human nature, whether it’s writing workshops or medical ethics. How does that inform the way you move through the writing community?
TC: When I imagine what human flourishing looks like, it looks something like a party in your backyard where everyone you know and love is invited. How special, and how lucky, that I get to help make that happen.
LB: That’s really it. I actually talked about the readings the last time I taught my health humanities course to first-year med students. The theme of that day was speculative worldbuilding: imagining what a better health care system would look like and asking yourself what you can do, even in small ways, to help create the conditions for that world to come into being. And my example of this was that I want to live in a world that recognizes the healing potential of community and creative practice. I mean that in a really literal way. I’m currently in one of the hardest periods of my life in terms of chronic illness, and every time we have a reading coming up I second guess my capacity to do it, and then every time we do it, I feel physically rejuvenated. I want to live in a world that takes art and medicine seriously as inseparable modalities. I’m one person and I can’t fix the fact that I live in a world where both art and medicine are being devalued in previously inconceivable ways, but I can carve out this one little corner of my one little city where some of that potential remains protected.
TD: I’ve been reading Gina Nutt's book, Night Rooms. She refers to Ithaca’s slogan in an early essay: Ten square miles surrounded by reality. I felt this kind of oasis at the series in Syracuse too. Syracuse reminds me of Baltimore in more ways than just the climate. A major hub for industry to pass through, now passed over, yet so many people are doing incredible work to support the community. I’d love to hear more about what it’s like to be a creative in Syracuse, moving through the contradictions.
TC: That’s Ithaca’s slogan? Just did some “research” online and it seems that Syracuse’s slogan is “Do Your Thing.” This feels right. Full of contradictions, yes. Syracuse feels gritty and DIY to me. If it doesn’t exist, well, grab a few friends and some duct tape and build it yourself.
LB: Totally agree. I still feel somewhat new here, and I’m always stunned by how people show up for these readings. They make the time, they bring food, they bring friends. I moved here from NYC, where there were about 12 readings every night and you’d be trying to be at all of them at the same time and sometimes be too exhausted to be at any of them. What we’re doing with this series was pretty unimaginable to me in that environment. It’s just a really different, more grounded feeling. I think that’s what happens when you make something happen in a city that people really want to see thriving and where people are willing to invest in that thriving along with you.
TD: Do either of you experience the post-reading down, especially as hosts? I find them emotional, and although I love performing, a big release of emotions comes with these events - just like running races. At the August Seemingly Mature - Josh Colasacco, Kofi Antwi, Misha Tentser, Gina Nutt, Jess Nissim, everyone’s work was so full of intensity (even if it was humor). I’d love to hear more about how you both process the experience.
TC: There’s never enough time to just talk with people after their reading. That’s really what I love most, and I could easily talk with people all night. But I also have a profound love of being in bed with my cats before 9 PM. So, I usually walk away feeling like I didn’t talk with people enough.
LB: Oh, I actually feel super energized by them. I’m always a wreck leading up to the reading and then it happens, and it’s so great, and I’ve met all these wonderful people and I feel so lucky to have this part of my life that brings people into each other’s orbits in this magical, kind of arbitrary way. And I usually have 3-4 new books I’m excited to read.
TD: What would you like to share about the next event?
LB: It’s going to be later this month, September 26th, and we’ll have Rachelle Toarmino and Aidan Ryan visiting from Buffalo to read from their new books. They were actually present for one of our first-ever readings which infamously turned into an impromptu karaoke party and really felt like, OK, we’ve got something really good going here. And now they’re coming back around but have come into their destiny as a full-blown literary power couple, which is unsurprising but amazing to see. I think we might end up with a bunch of lawn chairs in an art studio, because it’ll already be too cold in Syracuse to be outside.
TC: I’ll speak for myself and say that folks are always welcome to find me online (@dumptruck_aesthetics) or through a friend and start a conversation. No promises that we can make something happen, but it’s worth a shot. And Tracy, you’re always welcome back in Syracuse.
LB: Yes!! I’m @lizbowhunter on pretty much all platforms and I love to hear from folks who are interested in making the trek upstate to read.
TD: Thank you both so much! This has made me smile with all the genuine creativity and excitement you have shared. I’m going to do my best to make it back next summer as an audience member :)
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Great piece, Tracy! Love the interview w Liz and Tim,
and also relate so much to everything you wrote in this paragraph that starts, “Often, my favorite types of readings are events where I forget we’re supposed to have readers...even when I am one of the readers. Instead, you get to know other people who care about creativity”