The other night I went down to the latest literary deathmatch at Harlot. The format is pretty awesome. Two rounds. Each round two writers read a short piece (less than ten minutes). There are three judges, one judging literary merit, one judging performance and one judging intangibles. The winner of each round play off for the prize. This time the prize was a crown and sash, the play-off competition was writing a haiku in the theme back to school and it was judged based on the crowd's applause.

All the readers were smart and funny, the judges were great and there was a great atmosphere in the crowd. The next one is being held at the Rickshaw Stop on September 19th. I'm going to try to get there.