“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet.” – Bill Shakespeare

Indeed, what is in a name? For the folks at the James Franco Review, who are hosting their first release party tonight at the Hugo House, a name both matters and doesn’t at all.

The review, founded by Corinne Manning, reads submissions blind – well, sort of. They read their submissions in fiction and poetry as if all the submitters have the same name. Which name? You guessed it! James Franco.

Franco has received lots of attention for his creative work, which is, from a literary point of view, not as strong as the work from much less famous writers. Franco’s work is printed by well known New York City publishers, he has received an MFA from Columbia and has been on late night television programs reading his lackluster poetry. Manning wants to take back the poetry corner and she wants to do it with a bit of a joke, using the Franco name subversively to bring attention to her review while at the same time publishing the work of up and coming writers not named James Franco.

“What happens when writers’ work is read through an anonymous submission system?” Manning wonders. “What happens when editors change every two months and when there are no intermediary readers and everything is transparently selected by one editor, based solely on their taste?”

Readers for the release party this evening will be, among others, Ahsan Butt, Paul Vega and Jean Burnet. The event is free, the bar will be open and everything gets started at 7:30PM.

But the Seattle literary scene is rich and diverse! And not to be outdone, the APRIL (or, Authors, Publishers and Readers of Independent Literature) folks will be conducting their yearly festival March 24^th through 29^th leading up to the month of poetry, April.

This year the festivities kick off at Barboza with readings from Sarah Galvin, Shya Scanion and others. Over the course of the next six days, APRIL will be holding happy hour readings in conjunction with Poetry Northwest at Vermillion and a séance at the Sorrento Hotel on the 25^th; a second happy hour reading and a night of visual arts with Vignettes on the 26^th; a night with a poet, a playwright, a novelist and a drag queen at Northwest Film Forum on the 27^th; a late breakfast at Elliot Bay Books at 1PM and a reading at the Hugo House at 7:30PM on the 28^th; and culminating in their regular all-day APRIL Book Expo at the Hugo House at 11AM.

The book fair will feature pieces from Chin Music Press, Copper Canyon Press, PageBoy, Poetry Northwest and just about every other notable publisher of literary work in the area. Last year the event was attended by hundreds of literary-hungry individuals and it capped off the week wonderfully.