TUESDAY
If you’ve ever wished there was a way to mix the quiet solitude of writing with the blood-thristy spectacle of an MMA throw-down, (and who hasn’t?) don’t miss the first ever Prose Bowl. The event’s Facebook page calls it “one part literature, one part blood sport, one part American Idol.” It pits a lineup of writers against one another for a competition as fierce as it can get for literary types, which with booze, the audience’s cheers dictating the winner, and the promise of more free booze for the victor–who knows?– could be a lot. Each competitor gets five minutes to read a 900 to 1,000 word piece of fiction.
Tuesday, August 18, at 6:30 p.m. Pete’s Candy Store, 709 Lorimer Street (Williamsburg).
Cara Nicoletti tested 50 recipes in the kitchen of her Williamsburg apartment, making sure they do justice to the literary influences in her cookbook/memoir Voracious: A Hungry Reader 
Cooks Her Way Through Great Books. The recipes are inspired by her favorite literature, ranging from classic (a soft-boiled egg for Emma), to nostalgic (brown butter chocolate chip cookie for If You Give a Mouse a Cookie) to macabre (crostini with fava beans and chicken liver mousse). Nicoletti will present some tasty treats to accompany the reading and discussion.
Tuesday, August 18, at 7:30 p.m. Greenlight Bookstore, 686 Fulton Street (Fort Greene).Â
WEDNESDAY
Two years ago, Colin Atrophy Hagendorf went on a mission to eat and review a slice of cheese pizza from every pizzeria in Manhattan and became “The Slice Harvester.” His new memoir tells the story of how the twenty-something punk rocker got sober, fell in love and started a successful blog (check out his highly entertaining ramblings and awesome pizza map). In celebration of the book’s release, five other authors will present readings about, you guessed it, pizza.
Wednesday, August 19, at 7 p.m. WORD Bookstore, 126 Franklin Street (Greenpoint).Â
THURSDAY
Drunken! Careening! Writers! is a reading series based on a solid principle: readings should be by good writers who read their work well and have something to make the audience laugh (nervous tittering is acceptable). And it can only be 15 minutes, tops. Readers include Andrea Alton of the Fringe Fest play Possum Creek, playing now at Under St. Marks, and Victoria Libertore, who has performed her six one-woman shows all over the country, with her latest, “This is my Last Attempt at Fame,” coming to Dixon Place in October.
Thursday, August 20 at 7 p.m. KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street (East Village).Â
SATURDAY
See comics and storytellers tell stories about their first time doing things at “The Virgin Chronicles.” The stories could be about the first time having sex, doing drugs, first car, first job, first anything–it just has to the first. “Last show we had some show and tell with dioramas and dildos!” says Over the Eight on its website, followed by the suggestion that, duh, children should probably stay home unless you want their first time learning about a lot of things to be from a comedian at a bar. Comedians Darin Patterson and Evan Morgenstern host with Krystyna Hutchinson, Amanda Van Nostrand, Ashlee Gilbert Voorsanger, the Reverend Maribeth Mooney, Derek Humphrey and Sharon Spell.
Saturday, August 22, at 8 p.m. Over the Eight, 594 Union Avenue (Williamsburg).Â