Not at all. It started as a one-off event. My friends at Razorcake asked me to set up a reading for Joe Meno. I thought it would be a good idea to invite some other writers so that we attracted more than the usual dozen people whose interests intersected with indie lit and punk rock music. While we were planning the event, one of the owners of the legendary Mountain Bar was talking about it being a series. Whoa, cowboy, let’s just see how this goes.

So now how regularly scheduled are Vermin on the Mount readings? Has that fluctuated since the beginning?

It’s always been an irregular series. I’ve had as many as ten events in a year and as few as one. I think three or four times a year is nice. People who run monthly events are insane. My feeling has always been that if I show you a schedule of readers for the season, you’re going to pick one. Vermin on the Mount is like that band that is always threatening to break up.

Do you host poets and fiction writers, or primarily just nonfiction?

All genres. I’m biased in favor of nonfiction writers because people don’t ask journalists to read at literary events and they have the best stories. I’m somewhat biased against poets because they’re all liars who are incapable of sticking to a time limit. This is my hill and I have slaughtered many on it.

To you, are readings more of a social occasion or more focused on the art of it all? What do you say to people who ask what’s the point of a reading when they process books better at home?

It’s interesting. In the U.S. readings are all about entertainment. In Europe, my experience has been that it’s more about art. I try to champion indie and edgy literature, but I read widely, and interested in bringing people together that you might not find on the same lineup. It’s the literary equivalent of pairing death metal with folk music. Good or bad, you will never see that show again.

That event was wild. Amelia’s story is called “Go for It and Raise Hell” and when I heard it for the first time that night it blew my doors off. It’s in her collection Gutshot. That event was supposed to be held in a sex shop and I had a ton of dildo jokes ready to go but the venue cancelled at the last minute, which was how we ended up at a noisy bar. That event put me off readings at AWP, an organization that doesn’t care about art. Noisy venues are no fun and are stressful for everyone.

What was the biggest reading you’ve ever hosted?

The co-sponsored events with magazines and organizations do well because you’re getting people who might not know about Vermin. 150 maybe?

What was the smallest?

I made the mistake of scheduling an event in L.A. on Oscar night. Hardly anyone showed. Like ten people, including readers, at the most. In fact, one scheduled reader, Chris Abani, walked in, saw the size of the crowd, and walked right out again. He attended an event many years later though, so that counts for something, maybe.

People know what readings are now. We used to have our event at a bar in L.A.’s Chinatown on Sunday nights. They’d open up for us an hour early and people would wander in and be like, What the hell is this? Why are you doing this? I can tell you with absolute certainty that people now have shorter attention spans than they did 15 years ago. I used to encourage readers to read from 12-15 minutes. I’ve now cut that in half, which kind of sucks because it puts me in the position of asking people who have come from all over the city, state, country, and even the world to read for 300 seconds. That said, the reader with a book for sale who reads for six or seven minutes will sell many more copies than the reader who goes on for 15 or 20. This is science.

Do you have any tips for people starting a reading series? What’s the most important element for being successful?

I once told Aaron Burch of Hobart fame that the best thing about Vermin on the Mount is that isn’t a literary magazine. He laughed and then he murdered me. Seriously, it’s a lot less work than running a website or magazine, but it’s still work. Find a good venue. Have a theme, an organizing principle, or shtick. Put as much prep into your introductions as you would if you were reading. (And if you’re a reader who doesn’t prepare, maybe you should reconsider.) Don’t do lots of cocaine before the reading. That’s a rookie a mistake. The pros do it during the reading.

Can you share a memorable experience of attending a reading that you didn’t organize?

San Diego has some great events. There’s Last Exit by Julia Dixon Evans and there’s VAMP by So Say We All, which is always excellent. That’s not what you asked me but the people need to know.