Reading list of 100-plus 20th-century American poets

Edward Byrne, editor of the Valparaiso Poetry Review, writes the blog One Poet's Notes. In his Aug. 26 entry, he compiles a reading list of 100-plus 20th-century American poets. His list in in alphabetical order, and he invites readers to make their cases for omissions. You can see the list here. And, yes, Etheridge Knight made the cut.

Mari Evans on panhandling proposal

An ordinance being considered the the Indianapolis City-County Council has drawn ire from a prominent local poet. According to the Aug. 25 edition of The Indianapolis Star, the ordinance

would make it a violation of city code to stand within 50 feet of a stoplight or a stop sign on a public right of way while soliciting, advertising, selling a product or talking to someone in a vehicle. ...

Some residents, however, said they saw the ordinance as an on the city's poor.

"Are we trying to create a group of American untouchables?" said Mari Evans, an
Indianapolis resident and nationally renowned poet. "I resent the negative
labeling of the poor across the board as panhandlers. I view with contempt all
of these efforts on the part of people who have."

To read the entire story, click here.

Congrats: Richard Pflum and Lylanne Musselman

UPDATE:
Add Lylanne Musselman's name to the roster of winning poems that you can read the Dylan Thomas Coffeehouse website . Her poem is title "If You Only Knew."

Richard Pflum announced that his poem "Hold Hard These Ancient Moments" is among the winners of the Rev. Eli Jenkins' Five and and Country Senses Poetry Competition for Caffeine Theatre. It will soon be posted on its website as text and recorded as a podcast, and read at the Dylan Thomas Coffeehouse Cabaret in Chicagoi on Sept. 9. Pflum's poem appeared originally in the Tipton Poetry Journal, No. 5, edited by Barry Harris.

Congrats: Tipton Poetry Journal

What do Poetry Daily, the Indiana Review and the Tipton Poetry Journal have in common?

They're all members of the of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses. The TPJ was recently accepted for membership.

http://clmp.org/

IUPUI's Rufus & Louise Reiberg Reading Series

Be sure to confirm the event before attending.

THURSDAY, OCT. 8
3 p.m. memoirist and poet Patricia Hampl Hampl will give an informal Q&A session at IUPUI's Campus Center, Room 305. Free.

7:30 p.m. The Rufus & Louise Reiberg Reading Series presents memoirist and poet Patricia Hampl at IUPUI’s University Library Lilly Auditorium, 755 W. Michigan St., Indianapolis. Free. For more information, contact Terry Kirts at tkirts@iupui.edu or (317) 274-8929. A MacArthur Fellowship recipient and professor in the MFA program at the University of Minnesota, Hampl is the author of two poetry collections and six memoirs, including The Florist’s Daughter.

THURSDAY, OCT. 15
7:30 p.m. The Rufus & Louise Reiberg Reading Series presents poet and translator Khaled Mattawa at IUPUI’s University Library Lilly Auditorium, 755 W. Michigan St., Indianapolis. Free. For more information, contact Terry Kirts at tkirts@iupui.edu or (317) 274-8929. A faculty member at the University of Michigan, Mattawa has translated eight volumes of Arabic poetry and written four books of poems, including Amorisco and the forthcoming Tocqueville.

THURSDAY, FEB. 25
7:30 p.m. The Rufus & Louise Reiberg Reading Series presents poet Patricia Smith at IUPUI’s University Library Lilly Auditorium, 755 W. Michigan St., Indianapolis. Free. For more information, contact Terry Kirts at tkirts@iupui.edu or (317) 274-8929. A National Book Award Finalist in 2008, Smith is the author of Blood Dazzler and has been featured on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam.

THURSDAY, MARCH 4
7 p.m. The Rufus & Louise Reiberg Reading Series presents the International Women’s Day activities at IUPUI’s University Library Lilly Auditorium, 755 W. Michigan St., Indianapolis. Free. Join poets, women, performers, and activists from our community for this festive celebration. This event is co-sponsored by the IUPUI Women’s Studies Program. Reception at 6:30 p.m. For more information, contact Karen Kovacik at kkovacik@iupui.edu.

THURSDAY, APRIL 1
7:30 p.m. The Rufus & Louise Reiberg Reading Series presents poet Nin Andrews at IUPUI’s University Library Lilly Auditorium, 755 W. Michigan St., Indianapolis. Free. For more information, contact Terry Kirts at tkirts@iupui.edu or (317) 274-8929. A recipient of two Ohio Arts Council grants, Andrews is the author of numerous collections, including Sleeping With Houdini and the forthcoming Southern Comfort.

THURSDAY, APRIL 15
7:30 p.m. The Rufus & Louise Reiberg Reading Series presents poet and spoken-word artists Jessica Care-Moore at the Indiana Hostory Center, 450 W. Ohio St., Indianapolis. Free. For more information, contact Terry Kirts at tkirts@iupui.edu or (317) 274-8929.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21
7:30 p.m. The Rufus & Louise Reiberg Reading Series presents poet Ed Hirsch at IUPUI’s University Library Lilly Auditorium, 755 W. Michigan St., Indianapolis. Free. For more information, contact Terry Kirts at tkirts@iupui.edu or (317) 274-8929. Winner of a National Book Critics Circle Award in 1986, Hirsch is the author of eight collections of poetry, including The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems (forthcoming in 2010) and the best-selling book How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love With Poetry.

Writing class starting in September

Workshops for Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced Writers:
Instructor: Candace Denning
Beginning September 2009. For placement, please send five pages. Online services include: Short story and novel consultation, manuscript critique, editing/revising query letters. For information, contact: cdenning@indy.rr.com. Denning is the author of two novels. She has won the Virginia Prize for Fiction, an NEA Fellowship in Fiction, an IAC Artists Grant, and an Arts Council of Indiana Creative Renewal Fellowship. An assistant professor at Butler University, she holds an MFA in fiction.

Linda Lee, private writing instructor

UPDATED:

Private writing instructor Linda Lee

Contact: 317.475.0628 or email pennyroyal@ameritech.net

Thursdays: 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at First Friends Meeting, 3030 E. Kessler (near Glendale), Indianapolis.

Cost: $40 per month or $15 per class session.

Description: Do you enjoy writing? Do you find it difficult to make time to write? These workouts will get you started again or help you begin. Using prompts and varied themes, Linda Lee will help you grow in your own style of writing. The exercises include poetry or prose selections and sometimes include drawing, sounds, objects, meditation, or group interaction; some take ten-minutes, some are longer. Sharing your work is always optional. Topics vary and are chosen with sensitivity to group interests.

Heads up: WOW and Best Books of Indiana

Two events are the highlights this week in the local literary community at the Indiana State Library, 140 N. Senate Ave., Indianapolis.

The inaugural Indiana Poets: Words on Wings (readings and books signings) in the First Floor Exhibit Hall
Noon to 1 p.m.: Elizabeth Weber, Mitchell L.H. Douglas and Karen Kovacik.
1:15 to 2:15 p.m.: The Airpoets (Ruthelen Burns, Norbert Krapf and Joyce Elaine Brinkman).
2:30 to 3:30 p.m.: David Shumate, Tasha Jones and Norbert Krapf.

The poets’ featured works will be on sale in the Indiana Historical Bureau Book Shop located in the library. Call 317-232-2535 for further information or visit www.IN.gov/history.

Best Books of Indiana Awards Ceremony
4 p.m. For a list of the finalists, in five categories click here.

Radio program off the air

I received a few inquiries about Publisher’s Notes, which used to air on WXNT-AM (1430) in Indianapolis from noon to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. The program, still listed on the schedule on WXNT's Web site, was produced by New Century Publishing.

According to Scott Sands, program manager for the station, Publisher's Notes was a "paid program" that New Century has decided to discontinue.

DePauw's Kelly Writers Series

Here is the lineup for the 2009 Fall Kelly Writers Series at DePauw University, 100 E. Seminary St., Greencastle,

Honor Moore, Wednesday, Sept. 30
7:30 p.m., Peeler Auditorium.
MOORE is a poet, playwright, theater critic, memoirist and biographer. She has authored three collections of poems and is the editor of Amy Lowell: Selected Poems for the Library of America and co-editor of The Stray Dog Cabaret, A Book of Russian Poems translated by Paul Schmidt. Her biography, The White Blackbird, A Life of the Painter Margarett Sargent by Her Granddaughter, was a New York Times Notable Book in 1996. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2004 for The Bishop’s Daughter, a memoir, published in 2008. Her play Mourning Pictures, was produced on Broadway and published in The New Women’s Theatre: Ten Plays by Contemporary American Women, which she edited. From 2005 to 2007, Moore was an off-Broadway theatre critic for The New York Times. She has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts. Her writing has appeared in The New Republic, The New Yorker, Open City, and the Paris Review. She teaches in the graduate writing program at the New School and at Colombia University. She lives in Manhattan.

Khaled Mattawa, Wednesday, Oct, 14
7:30 p.m., Peeler Auditorium.
MATTAWA is the author of three books of poetry, Amorisco (Ausable Press, 2008), Zodiac of Echoes (Ausable Press, 2003) and Ismailia Eclipse (Sheep Meadow Press, 1996). He has translated seven books of contemporary Arabic poetry by Saadi Youssef, Fadhil Al-Azzawi, Hatif Janabi, Maram Al-Massri, Joumana Haddad, and Iman Mersal; and he has co-edited two anthologies of Arab-American literature. Mattawa has been awarded the PEN award for literary translation, a Guggenheim fellowship, the Alfred Hodder fellowship from Princeton University, an NEA translation grant, and three Pushcart prizes. His poems have appeared in Poetry, The Kenyon Review, Antioch Review, Best American Poetry, and many other journals and anthologies. Mattawa was born in Libya and came to the United States in his teens.

Ron Carlson, Thursday, November 5
7:30 p.m., Peeler Auditorium.
CARLSON is the author of 10 books of fiction, most recently the novel The Signal. His novel Five Skies was selected as one of the best books of 2007 by the Los Angeles Times and as the one book Rhode Island for 2009. His selected stories is A Kind of Flying, (W.W. Norton ), and his short fiction has appeared in Esquire, Harpers, The New Yorker, Gentlemen's Quarterly, Epoch, The Oxford American and other journals, as well as The Best American Short Stories, The O'Henry Prize Series, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction and dozens of other anthologies. A graduate of the University of Utah, Mr. Carlson is Director of the Graduate Program in Fiction at the University of California, Irvine. Graywolf Press published his book on the process of writing: Ron Carlson Writes a Story. Among his awards are a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction, and the Cohen Prize at Ploughshares, the McGinnis Award at the Iowa Review and the Aspen Foundation Literary Award.

Reboot for jazz and poetry series

The following message is from Norbert Krapf, Indiana state poet laureate:

After meeting with Shannon Forsell and my collaborator Monika Herzig, I announce with both regret and hope the temporary suspension of our Music & Poetry series with The Cabaret at the Connoisseur Room. The Sept. 11 Sweet Sister Moon: Tribute to Women Singers and Composers and the October 16 Poetry’s Got the Blues, an evening of blues and blues poetry with my friend Gordon Bonham, will not take place as planned.

However, we do plan to stage these shows, as well as the Hoosier Songwriters Tribute and others, in the future. We will rename the series, reconfigure it with an Indiana focus that allows for flexibility, and drop the admission price substantially. To make this last change possible, we will find a sponsor whose support guarantees that every show announced for the newly renamed and reconfigured series will go on.
We are convinced that a music and poetry series central to the great cabaret tradition will find an appreciative audience in Indianapolis if we bring it to you in the right way.

When we do this again, we will do it right or not at all. We know that the weak economy, on the road to recovery, made it difficult if not impossible for many of you to fit our series into your entertainment budget. We thank you for your patience and understanding. As I have said before, one of my missions as Indiana Poet Laureate is to champion the reunion of music and poetry. A life force will find its voice and an
appropriate outlet for expression! More to come!

Ropewalk Visiting Writers Readers Series

Though the University of Southern Indiana is some distance from central Indiana, it has a worthy reading series for 2009-10. Nicole Reid sent the following information about the Ropewalk Visiting Writers Reading Series, (Note: All times are central.) For information, contact Nicole Louise Reid, assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Southern Indiana, 8600 University Blvd., Evansville. 812-464-1916 or nredi@usi.edu.

Lee Martin: 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24, in Kleymeyer Hall.
Martin is the author of the novels The Bright Forever, a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in fiction; River of Heaven; and Quakertown. He has also published two memoirs, From Our House and Turning Bones; and a short story collection, The Least You Need To Know. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in such places as Harper's, Ms., Creative Nonfiction, The Georgia Review, Story, DoubleTake, The Kenyon Review, Fourth Genre, River Teeth, The Southern Review, and Glimmer Train. He is the winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council. He teaches in the MFA Program at The Ohio State University.

Brett Eugene Ralph: 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15, in Klemeyer Hall.
Ralph spent the better part of his youth in Louisville, Kentucky, playing football and singing in punk rock bands. He is author of Black Sabbatical (Sarabande, 2007) and his work has appeared in publications such as Conduit, Mudfish, Willow Springs, and The American Poetry Review, and his poems have been anthologized in The McSweeney's Book of Poets Picking Poets and The Stiffest of the Corpse: An Exquisite Corpse Reader. He has taught at the University of Massachusetts, Missouri State University, and the Central Institute of Buddhist Studies in the Himalayas of northern India. Currently, he lives in Empire, Kentucky, and teaches at Hopkinsville Community College. His country rock ensemble, Brett Eugene Ralph's Kentucky Chrome Revue, can be heard in seedy dives throughout the South.

XX Eccentric Women reading: 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, in Kleymeyer Hall.
Six contributing authors will read from their short stories in XX Eccentric: Stories About the Eccentricities of Women, the latest anthology published by Main Street Rag. Award-winning novelists and short story authors, grant and prize winners C. Jane Bradley, Amy Locklin, Molly McCaffrey, Nicole Louise Reid, Kathryn Shaver, and Josh Woods will share the stage for an evening of eccentricity.

Lili Wright: 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, in Kleymeyer, Hall.
Wright worked as a newspaper reporter for 10 years before she earned her MFA in creative nonfiction from Columbia University. She is author of the travel memoir, Learning to Float: The Journey of a Woman, a Dog, and Just Enough Men (Broadway, 2002). Her essays and journalism have appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Esquire, The Chicago Tribune, Maize, Grand Tour and other publications. She teaches writing at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., where she lives with her husband and two children. Her essay, “Pilgrim,” won the 2008 Mary C. Mohr Prize in Nonfiction from Southern Indiana Review.

Aaron Gwyn: 5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21, in Kleymeyer, Hall.
Gwyn was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and grew up on a farm in the central part of the state. He received his PhD in English from the University of Denver and currently teaches fiction writing at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. His short fiction has appeared in New Stories from the South, McSweeney's, Glimmer Train, Black Warrior Review, The Texas Review, Indiana Review, as well as several textbooks and anthologies. His novel, The World Beneath, was published April 2009 by W.W. Norton and Co. His story collection, Dog on the Cross, was published in 2004 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill and was a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award.

Eric Puchner: 5 p.m. Thursday, March 25, in Kleymeyer.
Puchner is author of the story collection Music Through the Floor, which was a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award. His short stories have appeared in Zoetrope: All Story, Chicago Tribune, The Sun, The Missouri Review, and Best New American Voices. He has received a Pushcart Prize, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. Scribner will publish his first novel, Model Home, in 2010.

Crystal Wilkinson: 5 p.m. Thursday, April 15, in Kleymeyer.
Wilkinson is the author of Blackberries, Blackberries, winner of the 2002 Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature. and Water Street, a finalist for both the UK’s Orange Prize for Fiction and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. She is also the recipient of awards and fellowships from The Kentucky Foundation for Women, The Kentucky Arts Council, The Mary Anderson Center for the Arts and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. She is the recent winner of the 2008 Denny Plattner Award in Poetry from Appalachian Heritage Magazine and currently teaches writing and literature in the BFA in Creative Writing Program at Morehead State University. She has also taught in the brief residency MFA in Writing Program at Spalding University and the MFA in Creative Writing at Indiana University-Bloomington.

Alan Cheuse: Friday, April 23, Mitchell Auditorium
For over twenty-five years, Cheuse has been “reading for America” every week on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” He’s also been writing a number of books of his own, and teaching the art of narrative and literature at George Mason University for over twenty years. He is the author, among other books, of the novels The Grandmothers’ Club, and The Light Possessed, the short story collections Lost and Old Rivers and The Tennessee Waltz, and a memoir, Fall Out of Heaven. His latest novel, To Catch the Lightning, won the Grub Street National Prize for Fiction for 2009. His collection of travel essays A Trance After Breakfast appeared in June. With fellow novelist Nicholas Delbanco, he wrote the newly published Literature: Craft & Voice, an introduction to college literary study. Since the late 1980s he has taught in the MFA program at George Mason University and at the summer conference of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers.

Hairku (sic) at Columbus

Now for something completely different:

Matthew Jackson will perform Friday, Aug. 21, as part of the Bad Hair Day festivities downtown Columbus, He will be performing poetry from 5 to 8 p.m. at One Body One Soul, 431 Sixth St. (behind the Heritage Fund).

Now here's where it gets hairy. As part of the fun, One Body One Soul will sponsor a Hairku Contest (details below). It will also be collecting donations for Locks of Love & giving hair tousling massages.

Hairku Contest!

Haiku: A three line Japanese form of poetry traditionally written in English with the syllable count of 5-7-5; subject matter is primarily about the natural world.

Hairku: A three line poem with the syllable count of 5-7-5; subject matter pertains to Bad Hair Day.

Contest: Submit your best hairku. A First, Second & Third place will be selected. Those winners will be invited to share their hairkus at the Open Mic Poetry & Slam event at Zwanzigz Pizza on Sept 8th at 7 p.m. First place winner will receive a customized gift basket of hair care products from The Finishing Touch.

Edward Byrne on the Tipton Poetry Journal

Edward Byrne on Tipton Poetry Journal

Reiberg Reading Series

UPDATE (8-24-09): Click here for complete lineup, dates, times and bios.


EARLIER POST: Posted on Facebook by Terry Kirts, on The Rufus & Louise Reiberg Reading Series @ IUPUI page:

We're putting together our season for 2009-10, and it promises to be a
banner year. In the fall we'll be hosting acclaimed memoirist, poet, and
MacArthur Fellow Patricia Hampl, as well as poet and translator Khaled Mattawa.
In the spring, we'll be bringing in poet and National Book Award finalist
Patricia Smith, spoken-word diva Jessica Care Moore, and poet Nin Andrews, who
will be reading for her recent release. Stay tuned for specific dates,
locations, and information.

I'll update with specific times and dates as soon as I receive them.

Click here to see the Facebook page.

Wanted: Tree poems

The following e-mail is from Stacy Smith:

Dear Poets:

I organized a tree poetry contest with a woman from Scotland who publishes a small chapbook-style magazine called Earth Love. She donates the proceeds from the magazine to different nature charities. I figured since I do the same thing with my publications, we should team up and do a publication together and have the proceeds go to a tree organization. She agreed and the “poetree” contest is now running through December 30, 2009. Winning entries from the contest will be published in a chapbook. There is an entry fee of $1 (£1) per poem entered to help defer the cost of publication. For more information, visit one of the following websites:

http://srsmith25.tripod.com/tranquilmoments/index.html

http://earthlovepoetrymagazine.co.uk/default.aspx (contest info. will be added soon)

Please let your poet friends know about it.

Writers' Center Classes: Fall 2009

The following was an e-mail sent to members of the Writer's Center of Indiana.


Subject: Writers' Center Fall Class Schedule
The New Fall Class Schedule is here!
Check out the September offerings below:

Single Session Classes

Get Started!
Instructor: Barbara Shoup
Monday, September 14
7-9 p.m.
Free for Members/$30 Nonmembers/$15 Students, Teachers, Seniors (60+)
Have you been thinking about writing for a long time and just not doing it? Do you wonder how to connect with other writers in the Indianapolis area? Join WCI Executive Director Barbara Shoup for a session of writing exercises and lively conversation about writing and the writing life that's guaranteed to jump-start the process of becoming the writer you want to be.

Wanna Blog?
Instructor: Bryan Furuness
Thursday, September 17
7-9 p.m.
$20 Members/$30 Nonmembers//$15 Students, Teachers, Seniors (60+)
Thinking about blogging but don't know how to get started? Join WCI board member Bryan Furuness for a crash course in how to set up a blog and strategies for promoting it. At the end of this course, you'll be ready to launch your blog. Visit Bryan's community blog at http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bookchoy.com.

Show, Don't TellI
nstructor: Barbara Shoup
Monday, September 28
9:30-11:00 a.m.$20 Members/$30 Nonmembers/$15 Teachers, Students, Seniors (60+)
Using imagery to convey ideas and information you want the reader to know is fundamental to all good writing-and achieving it can be maddening, whether you are a beginning or experienced writer. Join WCI Executive Director Barbara Shoup for a series of writing exercises guaranteed to help both poets and prose writers get a better handle on that "Show, Don't Tell" thing.

Multiple Session Classes

Starting in September

Making Memoirs; Making Sense
Instructor: Lyn Jones
3 Thursdays (September 10, October 1, November 5)
7-9 p.m.
$60 Members/$90 Nonmembers/$45 Students, Teachers, Seniors (60+)
Sometimes our lives scream and sometimes they whisper-and most of the time they are imperfect. But they are always rich with stories that define and validate us-and bring insight and resolution in the telling. The Quakers have a saying, "Let your life speak." In this introduction to the memoir, writer and teacher Lyn Jones will help you find the voice to tell your own stories and set you on the writer's path.

The Mothers' Room
Instructor: Julianna Thibodeaux
4 Tuesdays (Sept.15, 22, 29; Oct. 6)
9 a.m.-11 a.m.
$80 Members/$120 Nonmembers/$60 Students, Teachers, Seniors (60+)
In The Mother's Room, through reading, writing, and sharing our work, we'll explore the highs and lows of mothering, including the unique challenges we face as individuals and members of families, communities, and the larger society. The only prerequisite is an open mind and a desire to explore writing as a means of connecting with yourself and others. Mothers of all ages are welcome.

Introduction to the Fiction Workshop
Instructor: Debbie Steiman-Cameron
5 Wednesdays (Sept 16, 23, 30; No class Oct 7; Oct. 14, 21)7-9 p.m.
Class limit: 8 students
$100 Members/$150 Nonmembers/$75 Students, Teachers, Seniors (+60)
Do you feel you've been writing in a vacuum? Do you have short stories or a novel in progress that need feedback? Have you heard about writing workshops and writing groups, but feared taking the plunge? This is an entry-level writers' workshop for fiction writers of all genres. Each student will submit at least one piece of work to be critiqued during the workshop and will be responsible for critiquing submitted manuscripts from other workshop attendees. While respecting the individual style and intent of the writer, work will be critiqued for specific issues such as word choice and clarity, as well as global issues such as plot, character development, point of view and pacing. The workshop will also include in-class writing exercises, as time permits.NOTE: Submissions are limited to 18 pages of manuscript (12 pt font, one and a half inch margins, and double spaced.) If you submit an excerpt of a longer work, a brief synopsis must be included. Anyone who has a submission ready is encouraged to bring eight copies to the first session.

Story Matters: Reading Like a Writer
Barbara Shoup
3 Mondays: September 21, October 19, November 16
Time: 9:30-11:00 a.m
$45 Members/$65 Nonmembers/$32 Teachers, Students, Seniors(60+)
Along with her co-author Margaret-Love Denman, WCI Executive Director Barbara Shoup talked to some of America's best short fiction writers about the way they work. Their book, Story Matters, introduces the reader to the living art of short fiction, offering many insights about the fascinating, very messy process by which stories are made. In-depth interviews with Tobias Wolff, Grace Paley, Jamaica Kincaid, Russell Banks, Susan Neville and others are the backbone of this book, which also includes an anthology of stories and writing exercises. Learning to read like writers read, participants in this class will gain insight into how stories are made. Bring a cup of coffee and join Barbara Shoup for a series of in-depth discussions about short stories that are guaranteed to make you a better reader and writer. Writing exercises will be suggested, but not required. (Story Matters is available new and used at http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.amazon.com.)

To see all the upcoming classes at the Writers' Center or enroll online click here.

Update: Founder's Day Poetry Gathering in Muncie

About 40 writers (mostly poets who participated in last year's Arts Kaledisocope project at 308 Gallery in Muncie) received via e-mail a link revealing "The Fields I Flew In," by Sarah LaBarge (right), the painting that's to serve as their "Muse" for the Founder's Day reading. This is a different procedure from the one in 2008, when only one poet was charged with writing about one artwork. This year's scattershot approach assumes there will be enough variety in the poems on the same subject. So, good luck, writers, meeting that challenge. (Disclosure: I'm one of the poets invited to participate this year.)

Also, the Founder's Day reading in Muncie is scheduled for Nov. 7, which conflicts with the Gathering of Writers, sponsored by the Writers' Center on Indiana in Indianapolis. I have alerted one of the Muncie organizers, but I'm afraid there's little we can do about it, except to choose which event to attend. I will be at the Indianapolis event.

UPDATE: I was wrong. The reading date has been changed to Friday, Nov. 6. The deadline to send poems midnight Oct. 3.

Heads up: Norbert Krapf

Wednesday, Aug. 12
7:30 p.m. Norbert Krapf will read selections from his new collection of poetry, Sweet Sister Moon, in the Max Cade Room of the Athenaeum, 401 E. Michigan St., Indianapolis. Free.

Update: Irving Theatre: An Elvis connection?

The on-again, off-again idea to stage poetry/spoken-word events at the historic Irving Theatre, 5505 E. Washington St., on Indianapolis' Eastside, is perhaps on again, as one local poet reports he's discussing the idea with the owner.

But what's really interesting is this comment: "... one of the coolest things about it (the Irving) is ...the stage. It's the same stage that Market Square Arena used for Elvis' last show."

The venue now stages some music events.

How cool would it be to perform on the stage of Elvis' last concert? Can anyone confirm this?

UPDATE: This is from a web site about booking events at the Irving:

Overview: The Irving Theater was built in 1913 as a movie theater and has lived most of its life as such. It re-opened for business as a multi-use arts facility on June 3rd, 2006. The main hall is a 5,000 square foot room that holds up to 700 people with a 14'x30' backstage/green room. We have a reconfigurable stage, currently set at 24' wide by 12' deep. Our stage may very well be the last stage Elvis ever played on, as it is 6 of the 18 pieces from the old Market Square Arena in downtown Indianapolis.

Purdue University Visiting Writers Series

Purdue University Visiting Writers Series, 2009-2010
Sponsored by the MFA Program in Creative Writing,
the English Department and the
College of Liberal Arts

Fall 2009

Donald Ray Pollock, Craft Discussion
Thursday, September 10, 4:30 p.m.
Hicks Undergraduate Library Bookstall

Donald Ray Pollock, Fiction Reading

Thursday, September 10, 7:30 p.m.
Krannert Auditorium, Room 140

Carl Phillips, Craft Discussion


Thursday, September 24, 4:30 p.m.
Hicks Undergraduate Library Bookstall

Carl Phillips, Fiction Reading

Thursday, September 24, 7:30 p.m.
Hicks Undergraduate Library Bookstall

Helena María Viramontes, Fiction Reading


Friday, October 9, 12:00 p.m.
Purdue Memorial Union Anniversary Drawing Room

Nahid Rachlin, Craft Discussion


Thursday, October 22, 4:30 p.m.
Hicks Undergraduate Library Bookstall

Nahid Rachlin, Fiction Reading

Thursday, October 22, 7:30 p.m.
Krannert Auditorium, Room 140

Donald Hall, Lecture and Poetry Reading
Cancer, Culture and Community
Sponsored by the Oncological Sciences Center at Discover Park
Thursday, November 5, 7:30 p.m.
Fowler Hall

Writers Community Harvest
Thursday, November 19, 7:30 p.m.
Matthews Hall, Room 210

Donald Platt, Poetry Reading

Thursday, December 3, 7:30 p.m.
Hicks Undergraduate Library Bookstall

Spring 2010 schedule TBA

Midtown Arts and Coffee

The following Metromix shout-out for Midtown Arts & Coffee appeared July 7 in
Metromix.

I never could find the place, but now that I know it's behind Domino's Pizza, I'll be looking for it.

Tipton Poetry Journal, Issue 14, Summer 2009

The latest Tipton Poetry Journal is available. The lineup of poems begins with prose poet David Shumate's "Mannequins" (reprinted from his current volume, The Floating Bridge). The reason for this selection becomes obvious with this issue's last poem, a hilarious homage written by Michael Brockley, titled "When the Woman in the White Sweater at the Cancelled Charles Simic Reading Asked If I Was David Shumate." Other highlights include a poem by James Tipton (no relation to the city, county or journal) with a Spanish translation by Flor Aguilerra Garcia. Besides Shumate and Brockley, other Indiana contributors include Edward Byrne, Ginger Ko, Norbert Krapf, Sarah Layden, Bonnie Maurer, Tracy Mishkin, and Richard Pflum. Individual copies sell for $5. For purchasing information, go to http://www.tiptonpoetryjournal.com/.

Best Books of Indiana Finalists

The three finalists in the poetry category are:
Bloodroot, by Norbert Krapf (Indiana University Press).
The Floating Bridge, by David Shumate (University of Pittsburgh Press).
A Matinee in Plato’s Cave, by Rob Griffith (Water Press and Media).

Krapf also is a finalist in the nonfiction (historical or biographical) category for his memoir, The Ripest Moments: A Southern Indiana Childhood (Indiana Historical Society Press).

For finalists in other categories, go to http://www.in.gov/library/bbi09.htm.

The nominated titles were published in 2008. Winners will be announced Aug. 29 at the Indiana State Library, 140 N. Senate Ave., Indianapolis, during ceremonies beginning at noon.

Heads up: An Evening With the Muse

7 p.m. Sunday at the Writers' Center of Indiana, 812 E. 67th St., Indianapolis. An open mic will follow the featured poet.

An Evening With the Muse presents Bloomington poet Anne Haines, the author of the chapbook Breach, published in 2008 by Finishing Line Press. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in many literary journals, including Barn Owl Review, Blackbird, Calyx, Field, and Valparaiso Poetry Review. She received an Individual Artist Grant from the Indiana Arts Commission last year to complete her book-length manuscript Land Mammal; she has also been the recipient of two Pushcart Prize nominations and the Agha Shahid Ali Scholarship in Poetry from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Anne is a staff member in the IU Libraries and a member of the groups Five Women Poets and Source: Women Writers. When pressed, Anne describes herself as “50 percent middle-aged librarian and 50 percent aging-hippie rocker chick.” (She's also rather fond of the music of Bruce Springsteen.)

Free. For information, call host Rohana McCormack at (317) 259-7900.

Kellogg Writers Series at UIndy

The Allen & Helen Kellogg Writers Series brings writers of distinction to the University of Indianapolis, 1400 E. Hanna Ave., for classroom discussions and public readings. The series presents a wide range of voices of national and international significance. All events are free of charge and open to the public.

Sept. 23, 7:30 p.m.
Jan Flexon & Friends
Jan Flexon, a writer, musician, and artist who resides in Indianapolis, is originally from the Appalachian mountains of Virginia. Her first book and CD of poetry, Words Are Electric, But Not Always Static-Free, was published by New Century Publishing. She is also singer/songwriter for the band the Dancin’ Nancys, which recently released their second album, Cover Me. Her music and poetry have been included in numerous anthologies, and she has performed nationally and internationally. She co-owns the Underground 9 Studio, which holds such monthly events as an open mike for writers, poets, and musicians of all ages. Flexon has performed her poetry at the Chicago Printer’s Row Book Fair,and she is on the editorial board of Ichabod’s Sketchbook Literary Journal, based in Irvington. Information: 317-788-3733.

Oct. 7, 7:30 p.m.
Allison Joseph
Schwitzer Student Center, UIndy Hall A
Allison Joseph is the author of five full-length collections of poetry, What Keeps Us Here (Ampersand, 1992), Soul Train (Carnegie Mellon, 1997), In Every Seam (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997), Imitation of Life (Carnegie Mellon, 2003), and Worldly Pleasures (Word Press, 2004). What Keeps Us Here received the John C. Zacharis First Book Award from Ploughshares and Emerson College in Boston. In addition, she was awarded Illinois Arts Council Fellowships in Poetry in 1996 and 2007 and a Literary Award from the Illinois Arts Council in 1997. She is currently an associate professor at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, where she serves as editor for Crab Orchard Review and director of the Young Writers Workshop, a summer conference for high-school-age writers. Her sixth collection, My Father’s Kites, will be published in 2010 by Steel Toe Books. Information: 317-788-3733.

Nov. 5, 7:30 p.m.
David Shumate
David Shumate is the author of High Water Mark (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004), and winner of the 2003 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize and the 2004 Best Books of Indiana poetry category. His second collection of prose poems, The Floating Bridge, was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2008. His poetry has appeared widely in literary journals and has been anthologized in The Writer’s Almanac, Good Poems for Hard Times, and The Best American Poetry 2007. The Zionsville resident is the recipient of a 2009 NEA Poetry Fellowship and teaches at Marian University in Indianapolis. Information: 317-788-3733.

Barry Harris

Barry Harris reports:

My poem "life and death on the plasma" has been published in the Summer
2009 issue of Boston Literary Magazine.

Congratulations, Barry.

Heads up: Poetry on Brick Street

Poetry on Brick Street will present Joyce Brinkman, former Indiana poet laureate, as the featured guest poet at its monthly event at 6:30 p.m., Thursday Aug. 6, 2009, at G. Simone’s Cafe; 120 South Main Street in downtown Zionsville. An open mic will follow. Theme: Moon poems.

Open Mic at Anderson Public Library

From Stacy Smith:

Poetry lovers are invited to join us for an Open Mic Poetry program on
Wednesday, August 5, 2009. Attendees may participate by reading poetry of their
choice or they may just sit back and enjoy the poetry read by others.
If you would like to read poetry, please sign up prior to the program by contacting the library at (765) 641-2456.

Wednesday, August 5
7-8:30 pm
Delaware Room, Anderson (Ind.) Public Library
This program is for adults ages 18 and older.

UPDATE: This is now a monthly series on the first Wednesday of the month.