Desperate Literature

13/05/2026

🌱 MAY EVENTS 🌱

We have three events this month, including our all-day 12th Birthday party with readings, writings and musics... and we’ll be heading to the the Feria del Libro at the end of the month, to boot (, Caseta 77)

THE EVENTS:

💫 May 16th | ‘Galáxias’ by Haroldo de Campos () | with Robin Munby & translator Odile Cisneros ()

🎟 May 18th | The Litriviature Quiz (19h00)
‘What’s in a name?’ edition

🎂 May 23rd | OUR 12th BIRTHDAY PARTY

THE RUN-DOWN:

12h00 | Write in our all-day Cadavre Exquis
As 2026 is the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Allen Ginsberg, we’re folding in a whole host of Beat Generation fun, including an ‘On the Road’-style scroll on our typewriter. We invite guests to add to the story as the evening continues

17h30 | Listen to Bluegrass from Stierwood

18h00 | Ana María Caballero () reads from her new book ‘Material’ () in discussion with Dr. Goretti González

19h30 | A HOWL readthrough (with special guest readers) (, )

If you want to read, just sign up on the night!

20h00 | A Beat Generation salon with Regina Weinreich & Robert Lee, joined by Isabel Castelao-Gómez ()

We are joined by veritable Beat Generation legends to read, discuss and tell tales of old. We’ll be reading from the brilliant ‘Beat Attitude’ () edited by , celebrating the women of the Beat Generation

21h00 | We close the evening with DJs Brown’s Lair & Mondo Bizarro playing Disco, Latin soul, & Afrobeat

01/05/2026

NEXT EVENT:

⏰ Viernes 8 de Mayo | 20h00
‘Ser muchas y una íntima desconocida’
con autora Laura S. González de Araújo ()
en conversación con Victoria Gabaldón () (Mamagazine, .es)

FESTIVAL RIZOMA ()

Una autoficción sobre lo femenino, el deseo, la amistad, el cuerpo y la maternidad.

Ser muchas y una íntima desconocida, de Laura S. González de Araújo, es un ensayo literario con poses de autoficción construido a partir de las voces de una mujer que decide revisar su intimidad impulsada por un doble proceso: un tratamiento de fertilidad y las sesiones con su psicoanalista.

ALL MAY EVENTS COMING SOON!



es

09/04/2026

💫 APRIL EVENTS 💫
Five events, from our writing group delivering fresh work to an evening of love and letter writing!

IN THE SHOP:
🖊 April 11—19h30 | Subterrania: Notes from the Sótano | Join us for an evening of new work from the Desperate Literature writing group, fresh from the Sótano of Cava Baja, 8. , , , , , .librarian, ,

For anybody looking to connect with writers working in the city today!

🖊 April 15—20h00 | I Am Still Alive: Dispatches from Gaza () | Mahmoud M Al-Shaer () & Skye Arundhati Thomas () in conversation.

This event is made possible with the support of TBA21 () & Red Teja ()

🖊 April 20—19h30 | The Litriviature Quiz |
‘Death (of the Author)’ Edition!

The most absurd quiz this side of the Danube...
“A quiz that takes your favourite literary works, from the grand canon classics all the way to self-help books, and treats them equally – and with none of the respect that they deserve.”
€5 Entry.

🖊 April 24—20h00 | Stierwood: A Bluegrass Concert ()
Max Capacity: 25 people
Free entry until capacity.

🖊 April 25—19h30 | Formas de comunicar, formas de amar | Evento bilingüe with María Tausiet

LibroMAD – Noche de Los Libros ()

An evening in two parts:
First a discussion with María Tausiet of her work ‘Formas de Amar’ speckled with poetry from across the centuries, followed by a session where we drink wine and write letters!

Whether you want to send a postcard, a letter or book, you prep it, we send it!

And don’t forget our literary prize, open until the end of April!!

02/04/2026

🌱 ‘Paris-Madrid’
Inés Paris Arranz’s book of the month

Immerse yourself in the unknown Irish island where women, nature, power, art and s*x become one!

13/03/2026

📚 A very special edition of Desperate and Rare today…

✨ Andy Warhol
✨ John Lennon

We’re super lucky to have come across such beautiful pieces! Come check them out…

10/03/2026

09/03/2026

💫 MARCH EVENTS 💫
We have six events, including a workshop, a quiz, and Eimear McBride over for Semana de Irlanda!

AT THE MATADERO (Casa del Lector!):
🖊 March 11—19h30 | The award-winning Eimear McBride comes to the Casa del Lector (Matadero) as part of Semana de Irlanda (). Bilingual reading and discussion in collaboration with and . 🔥

IN THE SHOP:
🖊 March 18—20h00 | Hipocondría / Hypochondria with Will Rees (, )...
“Everyone must read this book.” – Lucia Osborne-Crowley

🖊 March 21—10h30-18h00 | RESCHEDULED - Feral Nature | In this one-day writing workshop, award-winning author Joan Fleming () will lead playful and generative exercises that invite absurdity, indecorum, and the ridiculous into your writing, via our focus on the natural world. See link in bio to book a spot.

On Joan’s writing:
“genre-bending delights”
“poetic, funny and completely addictive”
“extraordinary…transformative…hallucinogenic.”

🖊 March 22—17h30 | Casa Poética Open Mic (.madrid) con guest Inés Martínez (Libero editorial ) €5

🖊 March 28—20h00 | ‘Fresh Rhubarb’ | an evening of new fiction headlined by Robert Loyko-Greer (.loyko.greer)*

🖊 March 30—19h30 | The Litriviature Quiz | The most absurd quiz this side of the Danube...
“‘A quiz that takes your favourite literary works, from the grand canon classics all the way to self-help books, and treats them equally – and with none of the respect that they deserve.’”
€5 Entry.

And don’t forget our literary prize, open until mid-April!!

*image credits go to for their amazing Rhubarb print!!


madrid


loyko.greer

25/02/2026

💐 ONLY a few spots left
for Saturday’s workshop!

FERAL NATURE 🍄

In this one-day writing workshop, award-winning author Joan Fleming will lead playful and generative exercises that invite absurdity, indecorum, and the ridiculous into your writing, via our focus on the natural world.

Expect to spend the day doing close-readings of marvellous short texts across fiction, poetry, and non-fiction; engaging in dynamic group discussion and brainstorming; and going inwards periods of quiet, focussed writing where you respond to a series of prompts designed to get you thinking differently about the possibilities of the page – and the possibilities of our fragile, strange, entangled connections with everything on earth that isn’t us.

€75
For all info, check out link in bio.

14/02/2026

💌 Serving amazing first dates since 2014
….

And whether it’s on Valentines or no, remember what John Waters said:
“If you go home with somebody and they don’t have books, don’t f*ck ‘em”

-

Featuring: Oliver Edwards, , Archie Murray, Mariela
Filmed by:
Vibes by: .reyees,

10/02/2026

🦄 We’re back with our master of modernism, .reyees, for some first lines!

How well did you do?
And don’t forget to tell us your first lines....

✨ The Bell Jar
✨ Good Morning, Midnight
✨ Canto yo y la montaña baila .sola.saez
✨ The Black Unicorn
✨ Han cantado bingo
✨ Giovanni’s Room
✨ Selected Poems by F.G. Lorca
✨ Orlando
✨ Nightwood

06/02/2026

💥 Our event space is popping up, bit by bit!

With six more events this month, there’s plenty to come and see!

🖊 Feb 13—20h | ‘The Crib and Other Stories’ () celebrating Albertine Sarrazin with writer and translator Sonya Moor.
🖊 Feb 20—20h | ‘Three Women’, a radio play by Sylvia Plath, performed by Violeta de Benito (), Anya Izyumova (), and Marián Martínez Mondéjar () | Directed by Rafael Carvajal
🖊 Feb 21—20h | The Fig Book | an evening of fiction with Joan Fleming (). Join us for a reading from Joan Fleming’s forthcoming debut novel The Fig Book, a darkly funny, madcap ecological folktale.
🖊 Feb 23 —20h | Pajaro Azul () | a night of literary mythmaking (evento bilingüe). Lanzamos la s*xta edición de la revista Pajaro Azul: el mito!
🖊 Feb 28—10h30-18h00 | Feral Nature | In this one-day writing workshop, award-winning author Joan Fleming () will lead playful and generative exercises that invite absurdity, indecorum, and the ridiculous into your writing, via our focus on the natural world. See link in bio to book a spot.