This is the idyllic spot for anybody who loves reading, eating and drinking, especially altogether. Imagine combining the frugal indulgence of happy hour with silent reading, literary trivia, a featured reading, or book club. You can do all of this (& more!) at BookBar. This trendy spot features a delicious menu riddled with clever item names (that also serve as literary allusions), such as Much Fondue About Nothing, Melville Melt, and Egg-ar Allen Pesto and libations including a list of local options.With its impressive array of events, BookBar is certainly a hub that both hosts & fosters Denver’s active literary community, this is a place well worth walking into.

For the month of March, there are several ongoing series and events of interest I wish to briefly promote here. Bear in mind, this is only a glimpse of what BookBar is up to.

First Saturday Poetry Series

This series has its heart set on exposure and exploration. I am guilty of picking up New York Times Best Seller after New York Times Best Seller because they’re readily available, have title recognition, and the benefit of popularity. One has to be willing to pick up something totally unfamiliar and reap the rewards of the risk. This Saturday, you can get to do just that at BookBar. (You’ll find me here this coming weekend!)

Featuring: Join Kate Partridge (author of Ends of the Earth) and Alyse Knorr (author of Mega-City Redux)

Kate Partridge is a poet, author, PhD student at University of Southern California, and editor of Switchback Books.

About Ends of the Earth:
“Ends of the Earth is a poetry collection that contains both lyric responses to the urban Alaska environment and extended sequences that cycle between autobiography, mythic allusion, and the literary archive. In her work, Kate Partridge combines the fresh perspective of a newcomer with explorations of the landscape and lifestyles through allusions to classic literature.”

Alyse Knorr is a poet, author, MFA graduate of George Mason University where she co-founded Gazing Grain Press, and an assistant professor of English at Regis University, and editor at Switchback Books.

About Mega-City Redux:
BookBar gives some helpful backstory to Knorr’s work, explaining it builds on Christine de Pizan’s “allegorical work called The Book of the City of Ladies, in which she imagined constructing a walled city where women could live safe from sexism, misogyny, and gendered violence. […] Mega-City Redux, a novel-in-verse remix of Christine’s allegory, charts a modern-day road-trip search for the mythical city.”

Event info: March 3rd Happy Hour mingling starts at 4:30, reading starts at 5:30.

Unchaste Readers: Open Mic & Reading

I was a bit unsure of this event from its title. According to the BookBar website, “Unchaste is about promoting writing that takes risks–that shows the raw, vulnerable, ecstatic, complicated lives of women, gender non-binary and gender- noncomforming people.”

Featuring: local writers such as Rowena Algería, Dianna Vagianos Armentrout, Sheryl Luna, J.D. Mason and lastly, the event co-creator and curator, Jenny Forrester will read from her debut memoir.

About Narrow River, Wide Sky: A Memoir: This is Jenny Forrester’s debut work. As a widely published poet, Forrester’s memoir is profusely confessional and unabashedly invites the reader in as if they are an intimate friend and confidante. According to the Forrester’s publishers at Hawthorne Books, her story, “is a breathtaking, determinedly truthful story about one woman’s search for identity within the mythology of family and America itself.”

Event info:
March 4th – roughly 6 pm – 8 pm
5:30 pm open mic sign-up
6-6:30 open mic
6:30 to 7:30 reading
7:30 Q&A/Book Signing

Science Fiction & Fantasy Reading Series

For the third time, the fiction and fantasy reading series will be enriching our lives by immersing us into the imaginary depths and other-worldly wonders. This March 10th the evening will be dedicated to the local deceased science fiction author Ed Bryant.

Ed Bryant was a “longtime giant of Rocky Mountain science fiction and luminary of speculative writing.” –BookBar

Featuring: Authors Van Aaron Hughes, Mario Acevedo, and Wayne Faust Sphere of Influence is “a collection of stories which honor Ed’s memory and celebrate the work of some of today’s most remarkable writers.” –BookBar.com

Event Info: BookBar’s lounge from 7 – 9 pm.

Your Story is Your Power – Elle
Luna & Susie Herrick

Having personally read Elle Luna The Crossroads of Should and Must, I can attest to the creative, artistic approach Luna’s self-help-esque work had on my life. In its pages you will find an artfully concise, well-reasoned, and straightforward approach to encouragement and self-empowerment. I am keen to hear from Luna’s most recent collaborative work with acclaimed psychotherapist and writer Susie Herrick: Your Story is Your Power: Free Your Feminine Voice. It is bound to be an exciting, inspiring night.

Your Story is Your Power: Free Your Feminine Voice, “asks readers to discover their own stories, challenging them to use that story to cultivate their own feminine power and move forward both as an individual and as part of a strong female community seeking positive change.” –BookBar.com

Susie Herrick “is a licensed psychotherapist, personality typology expert, past academic department chair and professor, certified mediator, trainer, consultant, and writer”. –BookBar.com

Elle Luna “is a designer, painter, and writer, and the author of The Crossroads of Should and Must”. –BookBar.com

Event Info: March 27th from 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM in BookBar’s lounge.

A few Other BookBar Events for March:

Local Author Happy Hour

Saturday, March 10th from 5 – 6pm by the bar

Literary Trivia Night!

March 20th (& every 3rd Tuesday) from 7:30 – 9pm at BookBar!

Conversations with Councilman Espinoza

March 21st, stop by anytime between 5 – 7 to say hello to Councilman Rafael Espinoza, Denver’s District 1 Councilman.

Critically Engaging Denver Poets Through Music

March 22nd, in the Lounge from 6:30 – 8:30 pm.