Happy Endings is a monthly competitive reading series that challenges “happily ever after” with a “however.”

This is how it works: The emcees choose a few unbiased judges from the audience of Make-Out Room, a bar in San Francisco, CA. Then five readers go onstage, tell a story up to eight-minutes long, and those hapless judges choose a winner. Their prize is a small bauble relating to that month’s theme.

I read a story titled “What’s A Little Bodily Fluid Between Friends?” under the Bad Beginnings theme. (I did not win, though my friends said I won in their hearts.)

Listening Sessions is a live storytelling event for music enthusiasts. It explores the connection that people have with their music and the profound impact it has on our lives.

This is how it works: Four selectors each play a recorded piece of music and then tell a personal story connected to their song selection.

Set at Zoo Labs recording studio in Oakland, CA, I chose the song “Fourth of July” by Sufjan Stevens and told a five-minute story — a comedic retelling of what it was like illegally spreading my mom’s ashes with my siblings.

If I Told Napoleon is a Bay Area literary collective that publishes chapbooks, hosts readings, and meets weekly to critique each other’s current projects.

This is what happened: I contributed a poem titled “Alejandro Marguia Eats A Bacon Wrapped Hot Dog Before Getting Into A Lyft” to one of their chapbooks, If I Gave A Cookie To Napoleon (Issue No. 3, Winter 2015).

The collective hosted a zine release party at Wolfman Books, an independent bookstore in Oakland, CA, where I read the poem to a condensed crowd.