So You've Been Invited to Read...What Happens Next?

Advice for reading work to an audience, part 2

Welcome to our weekly column offering perspectives on lit mag publishing, with contributions from readers, writers and editors around the world.

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At last: the great day has come and you've finally been published in a literary magazine, and it's one that you've longed to appear in. People are reading your poems, your essay, your short fiction, and they may even be commenting online. Then something just as wonderful happens: you're invited to do a reading!   

One friend told me the first thing he worried about was what to wear. If that's your go-to question, cool. But once that decision is made, you have to figure out what exactly to read and how. After all, you want to leave the best impression, build your fan base, and enjoy yourself too.