On Thursday, May 17, 2007, the literary magazine Painted Bride Quarterly, in unity with the 2007 Week of Writing, held its second annual fundraising party at World Café Live on Walnut Street, Philadelphia.  The event was the finale in the week-long celebration of writing and literature. This year, novelist Rick Moody, novelist and screenwriter Heather McGowan, and folk music group The Wingdale Community Singers made up the guest list.  Rick Moody fans got an extra dose of the writer, who also sings with the folk group.  The event unfolded before “a homey-sized crowd,” as Rick Moody himself put it, and the intimate setting only added to the enjoyment of the evening. 

The fundraiser began with a VIP Cocktail party in the World Café Live’s mezzanine, where attendees could mingle with the authors and performers before the show.  The actual performances started at 7:30, with Heather McGowan kicking off the readings.  McGowan read from her latest novel, Duchess of Nothing, the story of a woman living with her boyfriend in Rome.  McGowan read the excerpt, a humorous chapter where the duchess converses with her boyfriend’s seven-year-old half-brother,.  Her voice was full of character, perfectly portraying the dialogue to the listening audience. 

After McGowan’s reading, Rick Moody took the stage.  He read from “Right Livelihoods:  Three Novellas,” whose protagonists have what Moody referred to as “referential-mania.”   And just as the audience was warned, the narrator of the first novella could not stop referencing loggias.  To Moody’s dismay, one of the questions that followed the reading was, “What is a loggia?”  (A porch, as it turns out.)   In spite of the unknown “loggia,” the reading was well-received. 
           
The Wingdale Community Singers took the stage after Moody’s reading.  Members Rick Moody, David Grubbs, Nina Katchadourian, and Hannah Marcus filled the venue with nicely blended vocal harmonies, eclectic lyrics and a wide variety of instruments, from accordion to fiddle to electric guitar.
           
Duchess of Nothing is available through Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.
           
“Right Livelihoods:  Three Novellas” is available through Little, Brown & Company. 
           
Visit The Wingdale Community Singers at: http://www.myspace.com/thewingdalecommunitysingers