announcements
As you enjoy the last sips of summer, peruse the awesome events 1319 Press associated artists have coming up this month as well as new titles in our bookstore!
upcoming events
A ROLLER RINK TEMPTATION by Catherine Weingarten will be running at Ovation Theatre in Bakersfield, CA! A sharp, glittery comedy about desire, pressure, and the choices that send us spinning. You don’t want to miss out on these girls skating around in the underground! 🎟️ theovationtheatre.com Reminder that you can license our titles!!!
Bramble Theatre Company is producing the Chicago premiere of BLACK BEAR ISLAND, written by 1319 Press playwright Karissa Murrell Myers, and directed by Jonathan Berry. The show runs Sept 24 to Oct 17, 2026 at Bramble Arts Loft.
When her estranged childhood sweetheart mysteriously dies, Amitra returns to Black Bear Island, which legend says is haunted by a monstrous man-killing bear. As she searches for the truth, the forest begins to engulf the house and her past begins to collide with the present as her memory starts to unfog. This gothic, magical realistic thriller set in the Pacific Northwest explores regret, the unreliableness of our own memories, and the paths we choose to become who we are.
Cesario Tirado-Ortiz is bringing their latest show post-modern prometheus to Elgin Fringe Sept 24th-26th and Scranton Fringe Oct 8th-10th. Click the links for tix!
oz is tired of Men. the most reasonable conclusion is to become God. exploring toxic transmasculinity through dating, philosophy, and watching too many movies, post-modern prometheus is a Frankenstein-esque tale on hating men, being a man, and becoming a man.
Eight Ball Theatre in Los Angeles is doing a reading of Kate McMorran’s play RECYCLE, BABY on September 26th at The Corner Room. Get your tickets here!
It’s the near future, and humans are giving birth to plastic babies due to the amount of microplastics inside us. When a plastic baby named SPRITE is revealed to never age (because plastic lasts forever!) he is passed from generation to generation in this century-spanning exploration of what it means to be human living in a plastic world.
new titles
Shoutout to our August releases!!!
The Oklahoma Shakespearean Festival New Works Collection edited by Justin Borak and featuring short plays by Elizabeth Addison, Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin, Sarah Groustra, Sandy Rustin, & Tracy Wells
Fireflies Taught Us Pyromania by Joshua Taylor Piper
Guilty Pleasure by Charlie Probus
These and Those by Ruth Geye
Black Bear Island by Karissa Murrell Myers
And let’s congratulate our new authors: Taiwo Aloba, Dan Caffrey, Aviva Pearl Creation, Paige Esterly, Caroline Fairweather, Vanessa Frances, Becca Carter Freeman, Yekta Khagani, Audrey Lang, Tessa O. Martinez, Sarah McEneaney, Jacob Menke, Srujanee Mishra, Āsim Ali Naqvi, Zoe Nelms, Ashley Quach, Michael Quinn, Cassandra Rose, Chloe Selavka, KJ Stewart, Nelle Tankus, Patrick Vermillion, and Anastasia West.
As well as our three Fresh Ink authors: Jameson P. Murray, Andrew Siañez-De La O, and David Valdez!
deals
It’s back to school for all our bookish baddies. 📚DM us on instagram if you are a student and we will send you a discount code for a new play to go with your bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils. ✏️
author spotlight
This month, we are featuring 1319 Press playwright Karissa Murrell Myers!! Her play, BLACK BEAR ISLAND is being produced at Bramble Theatre Company in Chicago this month! See announcement above for details!
Karissa Murrell Myers (she/her) is an award-winning Filipino-American theatre artist originally from Idaho. Now in Chicago, she serves as the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Bramble Theatre Company. Her plays include Black Bear Island, On the Greenbelt, Blood of My Mother’s, The Red Fortune Cookie, Twin Falls, How to Murder…, and Fragmented. Winner of the 2023 Maxim Mazumdar New Play Award and an O’Neill National Play Conference Finalist and Semi-Finalist, her plays have been developed and presented at Goodman Theatre, Alleyway Theatre, Paramount Theatre, Renaissance Theaterworks, A Red Orchid Theatre, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, The Road Theatre Company, The Gift Theatre, Strawdog Theatre, American Blues Theatre, Silk Road, Oregon Contemporary Theatre, City Theatre, Boise Contemporary Theatre, Avalanche Theatre, Ghostlight Ensemble, Broken Nose Theatre, Our Perspective: Asian American Plays, and Bramble. Member of SAG-AFTRA and The Dramatist Guild. More at www.kmurrellmyers.com.
Tell us a little bit about your connection to 1319 press. How did you hear about the org and get involved?
My colleague, Alyssa Haddad Chin, had her short play and now a little something for the ladies (among others) published by 1319 Press and had a terrific experience, so when I saw that 1319 Press was having open submissions, I felt compelled to submit.
Tell me about your style, why you write and who you write for?
I tell stories that remind us what it means to be Human through the fractured lens of multiculturalism and a love of nature. My stories are cinematic and fast-paced, featuring heightened realism with a dark comic edge that explores questions of identity, purpose, and where our true homes are. I love to write about messy, complicated, sharp-toothed women. About the cost of leaving your home, and about the cost of coming back to it. And about whether you can ever truly know who you are. Within me is a deep love of the American West and its beautiful and evocative landscape, particularly the mountains and deserts. The inspiration I find in nature and connection to the land from which I come is threaded throughout all of my stories.
What’s a play you love? Or a playwright that inspires you?
I have found myself consistently inspired by the work of the ‘Sams’; that is, Sam Shepard and Sam Hunter. Hunter is from my home state and I find his depictions of people from that area compassionate and insightful. I once heard him speak about “writing from your roots,” and that has resonated with me so much in how I approach my process. And if you look closely, I’m afraid you’ll see tendrils of Shepard’s work spiraling through each of my plays in some form. He wrote a lot about the folly of the American dream, which is something I love to explore as well but from the perspective of a 2nd gen Asian American millennial.
Tell us something kinda weird about you…
To relax, I like to watch snake hatching videos. I don’t understand why people think snakes are gross, they are so freaking cute. Have you ever seen a baby ball python with its egg tooth sticking just its head out of the egg? ADORABLE.
If you’re in Chicago, go see Karissa’s play! That’s all for today. See you next month.