Literary Death Match? Sorry, it's not John Irving pinning Joan Didion to the mat. Literary Death Match was created by Todd Zuniga in 2006 and has since brought words to blows in more than 43 cities worldwide. The format: Four writers get seven minutes each to read, then a panel of three judges makes fun of them intelligently. For this special freebie at the Hammer, it's author-playwright Rex Pickett (Sideways and Vertical), performer-fictionist Jeanne Darst (Fiction Ruined My Family), wunderkind Tupelo Hassman (Girlchild) and a fourth to be named later. Zuniga says, “I secretly believe that audience attention starts to wander at six minutes, can hold until seven and largely evaporates at eight.” The setting — usually at nightclubs — is fairly raucous and boozy, and has attracted such lit-shots as Tom Perrotta, Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), Richard Russo and Jennifer Egan, along with celeb types Mary Lynn Rajskub and Paulina Porizkova. Hammer Museum,10899 Wilshire Blvd., Wstwd.; Wed., July 11, 7:35 p.m. (how literary); free. (310) 443-7000; hammer.ucla.edu.

Wed., July 11, 7:30 p.m., 2012

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