Beginning Sunday, Nov. 12 writers from the critically acclaimed, Webby Award-nominated website Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood will be featured in a monthly series of events at the popular bar and performance space, Mo Pitkin’s. The November reading will be hosted by Patrick Gallagher, managing editor of Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood since June 2005, and the winner of numerous awards for public speaking.
Author and Open City Editor Thomas Beller founded mrbellersneighborhood.com in 2000. The site publishes stories about New York City life that follow in the tradition of Joseph Mitchell and E.B. White—slices of life, portraits of memorable characters, scandalous encounters with public decadence and heartwarming displays of civil courage. Part of what makes the site special is that it is so democratic: Many of the contributors to Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood are accomplished and well known writers, such as Michael Cunningham, Jonathan Ames, Sam Lipsyte, Rachel Sherman, or Beller himself, but many others work in a variety of jobs and write out of a passion to express themselves.

Readers on Feb. 11 are JB McGeever, Stacy Pershall, Greg Purcell, and Rebecca Schiff. The reading begins at 8:00 pm.
JB McGeever’s stories have appeared in Proteus, Confrontation, Hampton Shorts, The East Hampton Star, and $pread Magazine, with nonfiction in The New York Times, Family Circle Magazine, City Limits Magazine, and The Steinbeck Project Commemorative Journal.
Stacy Pershall is a memoirist living in the East Village. Her first book, Loud in the House of Myself, is the story of how tattoos and fleshhooks saved her from the clutches of Jesus.
Greg Purcell’s poetry and essays have appeared in Fence, New American Writing, McSweeney's, and The Denver Quarterly. The Fundamentals, his first book of poetry, has been shortlisted for the 2007 Walt Whitman Award. He works the night shift at St. Mark's Bookshop.
Rebecca Schiff lives in Brooklyn and is working on a collection of short stories. Her work has appeared in n+1. She also hosts a reading series for Columbia MFA students and other writers at the Lucky Cat bar in Williamsburg.