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Published: May 16, 2007

The Painted Bride Quarterly isn't based at the Painted Bride Arts Center anymore, and it's best enjoyed annually � their smartly bound collections come out every fourth quarter � but it's still very much a vital literary journal. Especially online, where it's a wisely curated source of poetry, fiction and essays. Rick Moody, author of The Ice Storm and The Black Vei, will read at this PBQ fundraiser.

�Patrick Rapa

Thu., May 17, 7:30 p.m., $15, with Heather McGowan and the Wingdale Community Singers, World Café Live, 3025 Walnut St., 215-222-1400, worldcafelive.com, pbq.drexel.edu.

When he was 11 years old, Bernard Gotfryd got his first camera. Little did he know that his dream of becoming a professional photographer would come true � but only after having survived six concentration camps during WWII. The Polish immigrant and 30-year Newsweek photographer will tell you the stories behind the rest of the 104 portraits in his book, The Intimate Eye (Riverside), including how he had coffee with W.H. Auden and explained darkroom techniques to George Balanchine.

�Mickey Jou

Thu., May 17, 7 p.m., free, Free Library of Philadelphia, Central Branch, 1901 Vine St., 215-686-5322, www.library.phila.gov.

Books shaped like boxes. Books illustrated with needle-stitched embroidery. These are just some of the wares that graduate and undergraduate students of the UArts Book Arts and Printmaking program are hawking at their twice-a-year event. These small-edition "book arts" � think paintings or sculptures created in the form of a book � defy the idea that books are merely containers of texts and images, putting the emphasis on how the word is printed and how the pages are bound instead.

�Mickey Jou

Thu., May 17, 4-7 p.m., free, Hamilton Hall, University of the Arts, 320 S. Broad St., 215-717-6270, www.uarts.edu.

Since 2004, the glossy-ish lit mag Philadelphia Stories has been free for the taking in just about every foyer and coffee shop in town. On its own, each issue's reliably worthwhile � interesting stories, poems and such � but a quick read to be sure. The new The Best of Philadelphia Stories, collecting highlights from the magazine's first three years, has some impressive heft to it. It's also a good chance to appreciate just how much good stuff they've been giving away all this time.

�Patrick Rapa

Philadelphia Stories Anthology, $11.95, available at local bookstores and online at www.philadelphiastories.com.

Writers, actors and fans of the recently deceased Kurt Vonnegut will gather to read passages from the author's work that they find most meaningful. But don't expect something too somber or reverent; Vonnegut was one of the funniest, sharpest American satirists of all time. And besides, he wouldn't be too inclined to take something like death all that seriously. "We are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different," he liked to say.

�Patrick Rapa

Fri., May 18, 6:30-8 p.m.; Sat., May 19, 5:30 p.m., Voices & Visions at the Bourse, lower level, Fourth Street between Market and Chestnut streets, 215-625-4740, vandvx3.booksense.com.

 

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