Ethan Gilsdorf and Ted Weesner, Jr.
Friday, December 14, 7:00 pm
Willoughby and Baltic Art Space
195 G Elm Street, Somerville (T: Davis Square)
Free
Ethan Gilsdorf's official site

Listings for readings may be slim while everyone is busy for the holidays, but it's quality that matters. Two recipients of fellowships from the Somerville Arts Council will be sharing their latest projects for free tomorrow night.

Journalist/poet Ethan Gilsdorf and novelist Ted Weesner, Jr., are likely familiar to you since their work often appears in local papers. Gilsdorf has written for nearly every magazine and paper under the sun, including the Globe and the Christian Science Monitor. He's also read for the Four Stories series, which is a Bostonist favorite. The Bostonist who attended his reading found him "adorably amusing."

Weesner has also appeared in the Globe, most memorably in a piece entitled "A Metrosexual in the Making," in which he tried out spa treatments in Rhode Island. In one episode in which he first sees handsome metrosexual bodies in the sauna, he writes, "My belly hollered, 'I'm pale, I'm whale blubber, hide me!'"

Weesner's novel is Left Prague for Good, and Gilsdorf is working on a memoir with a lengthy title: Escape Artists: One Man’s Quest to Find Reality Among Role Playing Freaks, Online Gaming Geeks, Fandom Addicts, World-Builders and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms. Phew.

Image of Gilsdorf by Wendy Harrington.