Since its debut in July, Slake has become L.A.'s deserving literary darling. The quarterly publication, founded by former L.A. Weekly edit-honchos Laurie Ochoa and Joe Donnelly, has been feted at loads of bookstore and gallery events, but now graduates to the prestigious Hammer Readings series with Slake L.A.: Iconoclasts. Ochoa says, “The theme of our next issue is 'Crossing Over' — and our Hammer event on Wednesday is a sort of crossing over because the audience will hear two of our best stories from Issue 1, and a preview of Issue 2. Our readers for the night — Mark Z. Danielewski, Jerry Stahl, Lauren Weedman and Mary Woronov — are not only excellent writers, but they're great performing storytellers. Joe and I are doing short Q&As with each of them. It will be one of the first times that people can ask Danielewski, for instance, about his mad-genius impulse to write a 27-volume project about a 12-year-old girl who finds a kitten.” Issue 2 will feature work by James Greer, artist Matjames, Greg Burk, Joseph Mattson, Victoria Patterson, Yxta Maya Murray, Margaret Wertheim and many more. And as for that $18 cover price? Donnelly responds, “When you divide the amount of time it takes to read and look and touch Slake by $18, it's practically free.”

Wed., Oct. 27, 7 p.m., 2010

Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.