A list of Central Florida Literary Events for May 2012:

5/3 ~ Sam Gennawey, author of the newly released Walt and the Promise of Progress City, will be doing a reading and signing at the Downtown branch of the Orlando Public Library in the Albertson Room at 6pm. His new book is a behind-the-scenes look at the process of conceptualizing, constructing and purposing Disney’s EPCOT project.

5/ 8 ~ The Best of There Will Be Words, year one! The Burrow Press prose reading series yearly capstone event is 6pm at Urban Rethink. The talented J. Bradley rides again as the fan favorites – James Fleming, Whitney Hamrick, Hannah Miller and Burrow Press’ own Ryan Rivas – read their latest. Limited edition chapbooks of the evening’s prose are $5.

5/13 ~ Parcels: MFAs in Progress. The UCF Creative Writing MFA’s reading series. 7pm @ Urban ReThink. It’s FREE. It’s CONSISTENTLY GREAT. Be there!

5/15 ~ Speakeasy open mic night is 9pm at Will’s Pub, hosted by Tod Caviness.

5/18 ~ Page 15 book release party for Wars are Dumb: Orlando High Schoolers Write the Wrongs of Adults. 6 – 9pm @ Urban ReThink. Free. Come support the young authors featured in the book, and support Page 15 by purchasing a copy.

Outside the Burrow

Vanessa Blakeslee has a great Florida essay at PANK about gators and yankees (er… Mets).

Nathan Holic chats about FL vs. Cali settings with Lavinia Ludlow at Curbside Splendor.

J. Bradley’s got a chapbook out, We Will Celebrate Our Failures, published by NAP.

Recent Stories, Articles & Books We Found to Be Exceptionally Good

As for what we’ve found fascinating from April, Nick Harkaway’s genre-bending and Colson Whitehead’s Zone One continue to impress. We’re a bit late for the unfortunate two-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf, but China Mieville’s hyper-imaginative, surrealist short on the subject never fails to give chills.

What have you been reading? Let us know in the comments.