Featuring John Gredler • Hit and Run / Kate Mayer • Not Bad for Store Bought / Robert Moulthrop • A Birthday Gift to Myself. BTL: Ann Levin • The Birthday Poem. Your birth was your beginning, and celebrating the anniversary of your arrival is an expression of thanks, an opportunity to refresh your outlook, and a chance to bond with people. Birthdays are much more than an occasion to receive gifts; each one is also a touchpoint, a mile-marker in a life in progress, and today we present birthday recollections from three talented writers.

Immigration Nation

Writers Read™ is a literary forum promoting established and emerging writers through curated live and digital performances celebrating the spoken word. It’s a high-quality platform for true personal stories—two pages and 650 words long, read aloud by the writer before an audience. Read650 places a strong emphasis on the craft of writing—word choices, sentence structures, the arc of the narrative. Our submission-based events are developed around broad themes that invite a wide range of expression. An editorial committee curates and sequences the content of each show and, where necessary, our editors collaborate with writers to further refine their work.