A Newsletter of Humorous Writing

For June 9-15, 2021, a roundup of the week's finest prose and prose humor-related news.

Hello and welcome to A Newsletter of Humorous Writing, the email propaganda arm of the acclaimed humorous readings show, An Evening of Humorous Readings. We just returned from a little beach getaway, and you know what that means: fresh sand! We brought back way too much (a whole extra suitcase worth plus as much as we could stuff into our pockets), so if you want some straight-from-the-beach sand, stop by Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ) with a little plastic pail and shovel and we'll be more than happy to give you some.

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What We Enjoyed This Week

Eavesdropping Through a Pandemic by Sarah Larson (The New Yorker) Come for the hilarious selections of overheard conversations, stay for the spot-on articulation of the delights of eavesdropping. Though this isn't a short humor piece in the traditional sense, the latter provides the same satisfying feeling of recognition you get from the best humor pieces.

If I Moved Back to My Hometown, As Envisioned by My Parents by Emily Delaney (McSweeney's) The point of view of the piece is set up nice and clear right in the title, the details are fun and specific, and the pacing is great.

A 1985 Action Movie Hero Brings Way Too Much Heat and Weird Slang to His Scenes by Dan Kennedy (McSweeney's) The consistent structure of each beat is a great way to ground the piece and provides a nice foil to the increasingly weird, delightfully specific Action Hero dialogue.
 

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An Old Favorite

This week's Old Favorite is a Brian Agler Selection (TM)--a piece whose accompanying note was written by Brian--from Newsletter #15.

Do you have an Old Favorite of your own? Let us know by filling out this form and we may run your pick in a future edition of the newsletter.

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Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show

Luke has a new edition of his "Let's Write a Short Humor Piece" workshop coming up in July! In it you'll write a short humor piece, going from brainstorm to full draft, over the course of four sessions. More info and sign up form right here.
 

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Other Humorous Writing News

The New Yorker Union has managed to avert a strike! The union and management have "reached an agreement on principle on [their] first contract." Details of the agreement can be found in this thread.

The St. Nell's Humor Writers Residency is going to be holding "a picnic in the park for the humor writing community" on June 19th in Prospect Park. It's free but you are encouraged to register--and you can do that and check out the full details right here.
 

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See you next week!

@lukevburns & @jamesfolta

We started this newsletter with our dear friend Brian Agler, and we want it to always honor his memory and his love of all things humorous. You can find our newsletter tribute to Brian here.

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