Born in Philadelphia in 1970, writer/musician Fred Wright eventually settled down in NE Ohio after completing college at Bowling Green and grad school at Kent State. He’s moved around the area a bit, but currently he’s settled down in Lakewood. Fred says, “Lakewood has a good vibe. The folks tend to be a bit individualistic, which I like, and it's favorable to walking, which is nice. There's lots of cool art, literature, and music in town, and lots of cool artists, musicians, and writers that live here, making it an even cooler place.”

Fred’s doing his part to keep Lakewood cool, too. He’s put together the three-day F Independent Literary Festival, a showcase for independent, underground, and zine literature. And Lakewood ‘s bela dubby coffee house (13321 Madison Avenue) will be part of the event. Writers from NE Ohio and across the country will be giving readings there on Friday July 7th. The event gets underway at 8pm. The line-up of performers for the evening is Jack McGuane (Lakewood Poet Laureate), Willoughby, OH cartoonist Paul Foresta, Frank Walsh (Philadelphia), Pat King (Alabama), Crazy Carl Robinson (Virginia), King Wenclas (Detroit), Edna Million (Wisconsin), Mark Sonnenfeld (New Jersey), Adam Hardin (Illinois), and Fred himself.

If you want more, the other two days of the fest are Thursday, July 6, at Mac’s Backs in Cleveland Heights (start time 7pm), and Saturday, July 8th, at Pat’s in the Flats in Tremont (start time 9pm). Each night will feature about 10 different writers giving 15 minute readings, and the final night at Pat’s in the Flats will feature writers backed up by local rock musicians like Derek Deprator, Kong Sauce, and Kill the Hippies. For a complete line-up for all three nights, visit http://www.wredfright.com/filf.html.

The idea for the festival came about through Fred’s membership in the Underground Literary Alliance, or ULA. “They're a group of zinesters who had become interested in the intersections between zine publishing and book publishing in the larger literary world," says Fred ("zines" are, you guessed it, small magazine-style publications, usually self-published by the writer and reflecting their interests). "They wanted to attract attention to the many talented writers toiling in the print underground, whom they contrasted with the writers of what they considered to be a very corrupt corporate literary publishing world. To that end, they've started publishing books on their own.” In the past the ULA has held events in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Detroit. This year, Fred thought it was time the ULA came to Cleveland and offered to organize it.

So what can you expect from this Lollapalooza of literature? “I have no idea what to expect beyond that it probably won't be a typical literary reading, " says Fred. "I actually like just hearing a story or some poems, and I expect there'll be some of that, but the ULA tends to enjoy more theatrical performances. I guess a good description would be pro wrestling mixed with a Beat Generation poetry reading mixed with an updated version of the Dadaists' Cabaret Voltaire mixed with a religious revival mixed with a party.” Since the ULA believes that literature should be a lively and democratic activity, audience participation (including heckling) is encouraged. In addition to the live readings, the participants will have books, zines and cds to trade and sell.

But why spend the money to publish an actual print zine in the age of the internet and blogging? Fred says, “There are benefits and drawbacks to whatever medium one uses, but there's something still delightful about reading a scruffy photocopied zine that you can hold in your hand and stick in your pocket.” Although Fred sees fewer newcomers going the print route, he says many longtime zinesters are still at it and improving the quality of their product. Fred says, “Zines are still viable as a medium, but the zine world is mostly left to the hardcore. From a mainstream media perspective they've been covered already, so they tend to get ignored. Thus one gets the impression that no one does zines anymore, but that's not true.”

Although Fred has published zines himself in the past, these days he mostly writes for other people’s zines. Fred says, “I still love zines, but I think if I self-published again it'd probably be a book. For all the work one does on a zine, once it reaches a certain level of readership you might as well publish a whole book instead and have something that's less ephemeral.” In fact, one of Fred’s last zines, a serialized novel about a garage rock band called The Pornographic Flabbergasted Emus, is scheduled for publication in book form through the ULA later this year. For more information about Fred, visit http://www.wredfright.coml. For more information on the ULA visit www.literaryrevolution.com.

The F Independent Literary Festival makes a stop at bela dubby on July 7th.