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War of the Words
Opium magazine’s Literary Death Matches
Todd Zuniga will host Literary Death Matches’s first-ever appearance at Pianos
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Sushi is a ubiquitous New York meal—literary death matches, however, are another story. So it seems strange that one of the most popular literary tickets around, both locally and as far reaching as San Francisco and soon Beijing and Paris, began over sashimi and white rice. “Over the course of a few hours, I, with Elizabeth Koch (who was helping co-edit Opium) and Dennis DiClaudio, a writer now at Comedy Central, agreed on two things: we wanted to involve the entire literary community, and we wanted to create a literary event that appealed to non-writers and non-editors,” says Todd Zuniga, editor of Opium magazine and the Opium Literary Death Matches.
A typical night at a Literary Death Match includes “mayhem, laughter and goofy twists,” says Zuniga. “I always make the wild claim to people that they’ll have the time of their lives if they come, and I secretly believe it.” Four famous and emerging writers perform their most electrifying pieces while celebrity judges, ranging from widely published authors to musicians like Moby to editors from much-loved literary journals, vaguely reference the work—and deliver a performance of their own.
Finales like laser-tag duels to Nerf hoop shootouts between the winners from the first two rounds decide the outcome. “The joke of the LDM is that readings are boring,” says Zuniga, “so we make the finale exciting and silly, since we never really feel like we’re putting the authors in competition. It’s a perfect cap to announce: this is all in good fun.”
Since their inception three years ago, the Literary Death Matches have been drawing crowds. After a few successful runs in New York, where attendance averaged over 100 people at each event, LDM decided to take their show to San Francisco, where the crowds almost doubled. This year they’re planning events in Denver, Boston, Atlanta, London and LA in addition to the Beijing and Paris events, and Zuniga is even shopping around a TV proposal.
“I want the Literary Death Match to be seen as one of the most important literary events in New York City—because it brings such a great mix of people together, literary and otherwise,” says Zuniga. “The fun for me is working with magazines to continue to expand the circle of what the Literary Death Match, and what Opium, is all about.”