Let's Get Ready to... uh, read?

Literary Death Match is a concept that combines literature with a gameshow element and somehow manages to make the end result something other than appalling – in fact, it makes it very appealing indeed. Starting in 2006 and originally based in New York, the event quickly spread to cities all over the world, typically using local talent.

The engaging host of Literary Death Match is Todd Zuniga, who tells me that audiences can differ from city to city. “In Chicago, there tends to be a bigger focus on comedy writing, and there's an expectation by the audience for things to skew funny,” he says. “In San Francisco, they love a cocktail of humour and salaciousness, but their interest in poetry is way slimmer than, say, London, where the raucous crowds get way quiet when someone takes the chance to read a serious piece of fiction. Same in Edinburgh, actually, which is why I'm so eager to return.”

The format is that four writers are pitted against each other, with their readings judged by a panel of three people, one on literary merit, one on performance, and one on ‘intangibles’, which is that x-facto… erm, let’s say ‘that certain something’ that makes a performance outstanding. The name ‘Literary Death Match’ could make the event seem like a stunt though. “Well, on the surface,” Todd says “we do an event with a big, scary title, that pits writers against one another. But the truth is (SPOILER ALERT!): that's not what it is, at all. At its heart, it's about as big, and noisy a celebration of literature as there is. We're keen to trick people outside literary circles to come see a reading (and, ultimately, to read), and the entire show is designed to keep people's smartphones in their pockets. And the best bit: it's absolutely different every single time.”

That it is. There is one that particularly stands out for him though. “At our 100th-ever show, David Corbett starts off his story about how he was teaching inmates a writing course and had to read something to introduce himself, and he knew that if he read something false, they'd sniff him out and distrust him. Then he takes a breath, starts his story by raising a fist and shouts out, 'Who the fuck do I have to kill to get my wife out of pain!?' I do a lot of these (Edinburgh's event will be our 160th overall) and no story has ever stopped me cold. I usually have to worry about making sure everything's going well, but here I was hearing this guy belt out a true story about his wife dying of cancer, and I just mouthed, 'Wow.' I was nearly in tears! It was incredible.” [Ryan Agee]