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Humor & Opinion

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

Advice for reading work to an audience, part 2

Lev Raphael's avatar
Lev Raphael
Feb 16, 2023
∙ Paid

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


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.

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Lev Raphael's avatar
A guest post by
Lev Raphael
Lev Raphael has published 27 books in genres from memoir to mystery. Lev taught creative writing at Michigan State University and Regents College in London. Dozens of his most recent personal essays are here: https://www.levraphael.com/essays.html
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