What is Live Lit and How Can I Read It?

This post is a bit of an oxymoron. Live Lit isn’t meant to be experienced through the pages of a book. Though it shares similarities with book readings, it has no intention of getting you to read a book either, at least not directly. Book readings, as much as I love them and have a valid purpose, always come off as a tad stuffy and stiff. The selection is usually carefully selected to entice the reader to finish the whole story in their own time. It is all very polite. There is a thin layer of separation between the author and the work, the work and the audience, and the writer and their fan. By its very nature, it leaves you wanting more.

With Live Lit, those artificial barriers seem to collapse into an experience that feels more like communion. Many of you may have heard of The Moth and the gist of Live Lit events around the country is more or less similar: storytellers take the stage to present an original story in front of a live audience. I usually tell friends that it’s a bit like stand up comedy, except you get one long anecdote and there is no obligation to be funny. Not all shows are the same and what you gravitate towards will, of course, be determined by personal taste. Some shows require a first-person true-to-life narrative, others do not. Some shows let performers read off the page, others frown upon it. Some let you ramble for as long as you want, some have a strict time limit. Whatever the guidelines may be, witnessing this hybrid art form tends to be more electrifying than a regular reading. Even in those cases where writers use notes, the performance allows itself to improvise the material and feed off the audience reactions. Plus, the short format gives the audience the intense, meaty bite of a complete story.

In Chicago, where I currently live, you can find a Live Lit show pretty much on any given day and there’s also a booming scene in New York, Austin, Los Angeles and most major cities. Those brave enough to take the stage are not always part of the literary establishment and many don’t have it as their ultimate goal. It gives readers—or in this case, listeners—a chance to hear stories that are unfiltered through the somewhat elitist and cutthroat filter of traditional publishing and media. The medium though has also seen talents go from bright-eyed newbies to full-on powerhouses, with bylines in The New York Times, TV pilots and their very own paperbacks to call their own.