Literary Death Match is returning to Odessa at 7 p.m. Oct. 17 at the Copper Rose Building.
Tickets are $20 and $15 for Odessa Arts members.
“I like to call it American Idol for the lit set,” Odessa Arts Executive Director Randy Ham said. “You have four authors and they all have prepared 7 minutes of original material, which they will read out loud.
“They’re judged by a panel of three adjudicators. One judges for literary merit, one judges for performance and one judges for intangibles. They listen to all four authors read and then they make little critiques and quips. We don’t have a Simon Cowell,” Ham added. “Everybody’s very friendly about it.”
Contestants are set up in a real boxing ring.
“It’s incredibly entertaining. If you’re on the fence about reading, this is a really good way to get you into it … because you’re going to come out with your friends and have a good time. When you leave, you might just stop by the Front Street Books table because they will be there and they will be selling the authors’ works. You can get them signed and you can meet the authors and talk to them and you just might walk out thinking I’m going to give this book a try,” he said.
The judges narrow it down to two finalists and the two finalists go head to head in a literary type game show.
“Something like, is this a quote from William Shakespeare or a tweet from Taylor Swift and you have to pick. It’s hosted by the creator, Adrian Todd Zuniga, who will also be appearing,” Ham said.
Zuniga, author of Collision Theory, is the creator of the game and an author himself.
Authors are native Odessans Elizabeth Wetmore, and Jeramey Kraatz, returning champion, Richard Santos, a horror writer from San Antonio, and Jonathan Pizarro, a native of Gibraltar, who just finished his first novel.
“We have a little bit of everything. We have our local authors that went on and made it big. We’ve got authors that are known in Texas and then we’ve got somebody from Gibraltar, so it’s quite the variety,” Ham said.
Ham said Zuniga, the host of the game show, created the game.
“It’s his baby. He created this so he’s got a lot invested into it and really does a great job as the host,” Ham added.
This is one of Ham’s favorite events.
“I love Literary Death Match when it comes to town. We’ve got Typewriter Rodeo from Austin coming back to do Typewriter Poems. It’s always just a fun night that promotes the written word and literacy, which is so important. Everybody that does it that’s returning like Jeramey and Beth Wetmore and Becca Oliver from the Writers League of Texas and last Literary Death Match champion James Wade is coming back to be one of the judges. It’s almost like a reunion when everybody gets here. They just have the greatest time and really give something fantastic and unique to the community,” Ham said.
He added that even if you’re not a big reader it’s still a fun event and you might leave being at least a “curious reader.”
“I know a lot of people that like to listen to audio books, which to me in a lot of ways is the purist form of storytelling because storytelling started from oral tradition so that’s what these authors are doing,” Ham said. “They’re reading you their work, so it’s part live audio performance and it’s part standup. It’s really funny. It’s so witty and it’s not a book club so we’re not going to sit here and say what did you think of this character, what do you think this motivation is?
“It’s really for the pure enjoyment of the written word and to me there’s nothing better than having an author read out their own words to an audience,” Ham said.
