If you’re in the mood to hear some verse, but want something livelier than your average bookstore reading, the DIRE LITERARY SERIES may be right up your alley. Timothy Gager, who, in 2001, created the series housed on the first Friday of every month at Cambridge’s Out of the Blue Art Gallery, says he didn’t want Dire to be “an uptight situation where people are afraid to move or sneeze or unwrap a candy wrapper.” So instead he turned it into something of a “house party,” complete with beer and wine. And far from intimidating its attendees into silence, Gager actually encourages audience participation, reserving four open-mic slots at each event. Which means, of course, if you’re an aspiring writer looking for an audience, you could potentially end up reading alongside someone like Tom Perrotta or DeWitt Henry — two of the more high-profile scribes featured by the series in the past.

OUT OF THE BLUE ART GALLERY | 106 Prospect Street, Cambridge | 617.354.5287 | outoftheblueartgallery.com