Events

Cheers To New! is a Staged Reading Series featuring new plays and a drinking game. Come drink along with us and experience some new work in a new way! We are always Pay-What-You-Can, and will take any donations you’d like to give at the door.

This month’s play is A Very Typical Romantic Comedy by local playwright Caroline Cole, directed by Ashley Rountree

Don’t miss out and sign up to our newsletter

Recibimos la llegada del otoño con La reina del sur, una novela del conocido autor español Arturo Pérez-Reverte.

“Entretenida como pocas, hermosa por su construcción e inquietante por la grave problemática que late debajo de la aventura criminal. A esta radiografía del delito añade además el autor un canto a la propia literatura.” – El Cultural

“El encuentro de John Le Carré con Gabriel García Márquez. Pérez-Reverte tiene un enorme grupo de seguidores que sigue creciendo.” – Wall Street Journal

Arturo Pérez-Reverte (Cartagena, 1951) fue reportero de guerra durante veintiún años y es autor, entre otras novelas, de El húsar, El maestro de esgrima, La tabla de Flandes, El club Dumas, Territorio Comanche, La piel del tambor, La carta esférica, El pintor de batallas, Un día de cólera, El asedio, El tango de la Guardia Vieja y El francotirador paciente; y de la ya legendaria serie histórica Las aventuras del capitán Alatriste. Arturo Pérez-Reverte es miembro de la Real Academia Española.

Como siempre, aplicaremos un 10% de descuento para los asistentes al book club tanto en la compra de este libro como en las consumiciones de que disfruten el día del evento.

Os esperamos.

Don’t miss out and sign up to our newsletter

Birthday Soup – Else Homelund Minarik and Maurice Sendak, taken from Little Bear, 1957
Last Stop On Market Street – Matt De La Peña, 2017
The Lion And The Mouse – Aesop, c. 1000 BC
THANKS From The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Eric Carle, 2017

Hello and welcome, kids, neighbors, friends and families! It’s time for another Kids In The Cliff story time at The Wild Detectives! In the spirit of Thanksgiving, this weekend, the stories are all about sharing and giving thanks. After the stories, stick around for a sweet group activity! If you have any canned goods to spare for this, we would be most grateful; don’t worry if you do not! Afterwards, the canned goods will go to the neighborhood food pantry at the nearby Salvation Army. So come join us at The Wild Detectives’ little house for a cozy morning this Sunday. See you in the kids’ section!

*Special note for parents: As usual, we’ll have related extra books on hand in case you are looking for other excellent picture books we recommend! Particular emphasis is placed on striking illustrations, great graphic design or standout writing. Titles may be brand new, old treasures, from home, our kids’ section or the local library, but they are always picked with love and a sense of adventure. If there’s a book you’d love, consider our ordering service!

Kids In The Cliff storytime at The Wild Detectives is every Sunday morning at 11. As people who’ve been there, we strive to select themes or titles that will be interesting enough to pique not only children’s, but also the attending adults’ curiosity. It’ll be about a 30-45 minute read each time with something different and fun for the kids–that’s going to be interesting; we can’t wait to see what they come up with.

All ages are welcome.

On Sunday mornings, bring your kids and infuse them with a love of reading.

– – – – –

Kids In The Cliff is organized by Lanie DeLay, who has worked at Dallas Contemporary, the Dallas Public Library, Hamon Arts Library at SMU, at area preschools and the School For The Blind in Austin. She has written for Glasstire and Art&Seek, and she tutors children in early reading skills at Dealey Montessori. When she isn’t looking at art or reading with kids, she’s reading about art or looking for a new read.

Don’t miss out and sign up to our newsletter

If you’re a storyteller or you love to enjoy a good tale, Backyard Story Night is for you! We’ll see everyone again in the backyard of The Wild Detectives on Sunday, November 24th at 7:00 pm!

Submit your story here: https://bit.ly/2PDIVgN

The theme for November is stories from The Dinner Table. Since Thanksgiving is the holiday where we gather around a table loaded with food – let’s lay it all out on the table for this month! Share stories from food fights, to family dinner traditions, or really anything we can sink our teeth into.
***

Started in Austin, TX, Backyard Story Night is the brainchild of John Brewster and Meg Mattingly (Please note: Meg and John will not host this event). Now we’re experimenting with Dallas story telling events! The goal is simple: gather friends – and friends of friends – in a backyard to share real, unrehearsed stories. Please note: this event is ideal for 18+, as the stories have not been vetted or rehearsed.

Drinks and food will be available for purchase from The Wild Detectives. Also, parking is tight – we encourage walking, biking, Ubering, or carpooling!

Submit your story here: https://bit.ly/2PDIVgN

This will be the LAST Backyard Story Night for the fall season! We’ll see everyone back in the backyard in March 2020!

Don’t miss out and sign up to our newsletter

Pick A Pine Tree – Patricia Toht and Jarvis, 2017
Allumette – Tomi Ungerer, 1974
Today Is December 1 (from Santa’s Countdown to Christmas: 24 Days Of Stories) – Kim Thomson and Élodie Duhameau, 2017

Happy Holidays! Hello and welcome, kids, neighbors, friends and families! It’s time for another Kids In The Cliff story time at The Wild Detectives! As everyone settles in from Thanksgiving and gets ready for festivities to come, our story time will focus on this special transition time. Note: Allumette by Tomi Ungerer (1931 – 2019) is inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s 1845 story The Match Girl, and gives a wild, funny and compassionate take on holiday shopping madness. If you have any canned goods to spare for a canned food drive, we would be most grateful; don’t worry if you do not! Afterwards, the canned goods will go to the neighborhood food pantry at the nearby Salvation Army. So come join us at The Wild Detectives’ little house for a cozy morning this Sunday. See you in the kids’ section!

*Special note for parents: As usual, we’ll have related extra books on hand in case you are looking for other excellent picture books we recommend! Particular emphasis is placed on striking illustrations, great graphic design or standout writing. Titles may be brand new, old treasures, from home, our kids’ section or the local library, but they are always picked with love and a sense of adventure. If there’s a book you’d love, consider our ordering service!

Kids In The Cliff storytime at The Wild Detectives is every Sunday morning at 11. As people who’ve been there, we strive to select themes or titles that will be interesting enough to pique not only children’s, but also the attending adults’ curiosity. It’ll be about a 30-45 minute read each time with something different and fun for the kids–that’s going to be interesting; we can’t wait to see what they come up with.

All ages are welcome.

On Sunday mornings, bring your kids and infuse them with a love of reading.

– – – – –

Kids In The Cliff is organized by Lanie DeLay, who has worked at Dallas Contemporary, the Dallas Public Library, Hamon Arts Library at SMU, at area preschools and the School For The Blind in Austin. She has written for Glasstire and Art&Seek, and she tutors children in early reading skills at Dealey Montessori. When she isn’t looking at art or reading with kids, she’s reading about art or looking for a new read.

Don’t miss out and sign up to our newsletter

Our next pick for The WD Book Club is Trust Excercise by American author and pulitzer and PEN award finalist Susan Choi, well known for her previous novels My Education, American Woman, A Person of Interest, and The Foreign Student.

In an American suburb in the early 1980s, students at a highly competitive performing arts high school struggle and thrive in a rarified bubble, ambitiously pursuing music, movement, Shakespeare, and, particularly, their acting classes. When within this striving ‘Brotherhood of the Arts,’ two freshmen, David and Sarah, fall headlong into love, their passion does not go unnoticed–or untoyed with–by anyone, especially not by their charismatic acting teacher, Mr. Kingsley. The outside world of family life and economic status, of academic pressure and of their future adult lives, fails to penetrate this school’s walls–until it does, in a … spiral of events that catapults the action forward in time and flips the premise upside-down.

The outside world of family life and economic status, of academic pressure and of their future adult lives, fails to penetrate this school’s walls–until it does, in a shocking spiral of events that catapults the action forward in time and flips the premise upside-down. What the reader believes to have happened to David and Sarah and their friends is not entirely true–though it’s not false, either. It takes until the book’s stunning coda for the final piece of the puzzle to fall into place–revealing truths that will resonate long after the final sentence.

As captivating and tender as it is surprising, Susan Choi’s Trust Exercise will incite heated conversations about fiction and truth, and about friendships and loyalties, and will leave readers with wiser understandings of the true capacities of adolescents and of the powers and responsibilities of adults.

“Compulsively readable and formally brilliant: this is basically a literary unicorn.” –Lit Hub

“Choi’s voice blends an adolescent’s awe with an adult’s irony. It’s a letter-perfect satire of the special strain of egotism and obsession that can fester in academic settings. (…) [Choi is] a master of emotional pacing: the sudden revelation, the unexpected attack. (…) How cunningly this novel considers the way teenage sexuality is experienced, manipulated, and remembered. (…) The result is a dramatic exploration of the distorting forces of memory, envy, and art. (…) You won’t be disappointed.” –NPR

As always, Book Club members (meaning you just show up) will enjoy a 10% discount on the next book club title and on every item they’ll ask for at the bar during the Book Club meeting.

Let’s meet up and talk Literature.

Don’t miss out and sign up to our newsletter

Writing Workshops Dallas Happy Hour in the backyard at The Wild Detectives takes place on the first Tuesday of every month from 6PM – 8PM. Each month we’ll raffle off books, enjoy drink specials, and talk reading, writing, and everything in between. Come out if want to meet other writers in Dallas and talk shop. It doesn’t matter if you’re a current or former WWD student or if you’ve never head of Writing Workshops Dallas at all, we’d love for you to be part of the thriving literary community at the best bookstore in town.

Our mission is to bring writers out of the wilderness and into community. In fact, we were founded on the basis that having a literary community is essential to the life of any creative writer. Finding a community is an important step that leads most writers to take their work and craft more seriously. We’re proud to be part of the thriving literary scene in Dallas and we hope to see you at Happy Hour!

First Tuesday of Every Month – 6:00PM to 8:00PM

Happy Hour meets at The Wild Detectives at 314 W Eighth St, Dallas, TX 75208

Don’t miss out and sign up to our newsletter

We are proud to feature Mag Gabbert and Alexandra Corinth for this month’s Inner Moonlight! Brief open mic to follow. Bring a poem! We dare you.

Mag Gabbert holds a PhD in creative writing from Texas Tech University and an MFA from The University of California at Riverside. Her essays and poems have been published in 32 Poems, Stirring, The Rumpus, Thrush, Anomaly, Phoebe, Birmingham Poetry Review, and many other journals. Mag teaches creative writing at Southern Methodist University and for Writing Workshops Dallas; she serves as an associate editor for Iron Horse Literary Review and for Underblong Journal.

Alexandra Corinth is a disabled writer and artist based in DFW. Her chaplet, Deus Ex Diagnosi, was published by Damaged Goods Press in 2019. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Construction, Kissing Dynamite, Barren Magazine, Entropy, and SWWIM, among others. She is also an editorial assistant for the Southwest Review. You can find her online at @novelseason.

Inner Moonlight is the second Wednesday of every month. Mark your calendar and we’ll see you there!

“Follow your inner moonlight, don’t hide the madness.”
—Allen Ginsberg, from On Being a Writer

Don’t miss out and sign up to our newsletter