Antioch Review

May 21 2002

Antioch Review readings with James Purdy and Jeffery Renard Allen.

The New York Times METRO review by Susan Guerrero, published Monday, June 3, 2002, read as follows:

Jeffery Renard Allen, an author, was reading one of his short stories aloud at a benefit for the Antioch Review at the Dactyl Foundation on Grand Street in SOHO when the dreaded happened – a cellphone rang and rang.

The cellphone have-nots in the audience looked around, their stares wildly disapproving. The haves looked guilty as they scrambled for purses and dived into their backpacks. To no avail. The phone kept ringing. Mr. Allen gamely kept reading. Everyone looked at everyone else. It was hard to concentrate on the story, steamy as it was. A couple of people double checked.

Suddenly Mr. Allen stopped in midsentence, having finally identified the culprit cellphone. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s mine.”