Friday's musings (Oct. 2,2015)

Because it is October and everything scary, I am waging a one-man campaign to expose the public misspellings of Edgar Allan Poe's name. On my Facebook page, I complained about the Ballet Theatre of Indiana and NUVO Newsweekly, both of whom used "Edgar Allen Poe" recently.

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Late notices:

• I have not come across any information about the schedule for the Rufus and Louise Reiberg Reading Series at IUPUI. Anyone have any information?
• Also missing is the promised information of the 2016 Max Erhmann Poetry Contest, sponsored by Art Spaces, Inc. in Terre Haute. The organization's website.  promised details in September.

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October 7 is Random Acts of Poetry and Art Day. This is a new one on me. Any local events planned? Or should we expect unannounced pop-up events throughout the day?

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On Wednesday afternoon, I attended a poetry reading given by Adrian Matejka at the Pike Branch Library, where I became reacquainted with Kyle Craig and Rachel Sahaidachny. 
We were the only "outsiders" to attend. The rest were library staff and Adrian's family. Adrian was gracious, taking time to chat with each of us before reading his persona poems about boxer Jack Johnson,which included vintage videos.

We learned that Adrian was 1990 Pike High School grad who did not write poetry until he took a class at Indiana University (where he now teaches). He moved to Seattle but slowly made his way back to the Midwest. His mother revealed Adrian wrote a book when was 10 years old.

Given the horrible start time (3:30 p.m.) and minuscule publicity, it was a wonder that even we three showed up. But I urge you to grab the next opportunity to hear him.

2 poets among writers at UIndy's Kellogg Writer Series lineup for 2015-16

Poets Shonda Buchanan and Adrain Matejka will visit the University of Indianapolis campus as part of the Allen and Helen Kellogg Writers Series.

• Shonda Buchanan, who last visited Indianapolis at the Eiteljorg Museum on July 29, will return to the city on Wednesday, Sept. 23. Poet, memoirist, and fiction writer Shonda Buchanan is a culture and literary arts ambassador whose presentations, workshops, and lectures demonstrate her passion for exploring gender, ethnicity, family, heritage, landscape, environment, and ancestry. She edited 
  the poetry anthology Voices from Leimert Park, and her poetry collection Who’s Afraid of Black Indians? was nominated for the Library of Virginia Literary Awards and the Black Caucus of the American Library Association Literary Awards. She has contributed to the Los Angeles Times, L.A. Weekly, The Writer’s Chronicle, and American Public Media’s Marketplace, and has been featured on National Public Radio’s Tell Me More. She is an assistant professor of English at Hampton University, where she teaches writing and editing.



Shonda Buchanan

• Adrian Matejka, winner of an Indiana Authors Award, will visit Wednesday, April 13. Adrian Matejka was born in Nuremberg, Germany, and grew up in California and Indiana. His first collection of poems, The Devil’s Garden, won the 2002 New York/New England Award from Alice James Books. His second collection, Mixology, published by Penguin Books in 2009, was a winner of the 2008 National Poetry Series and a finalist for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature – Poetry. His most recent book, The Big Smoke, received the 2014 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was a finalist for the 2013 National Book Award, the 2014 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Lannan Foundation, and his work has appeared in leading journals and anthologies. He teaches at Indiana University in Bloomington and is working on a new collection of poems and a graphic novel.

  

  Adrian Matejka

Both readings are free and at 7:30 p.m. in the Trustees Dining Room of Schwitzer Student Center, University of Indianapolis, 1400 E. Hanna Ave.

For complete lineup of writers, go to http://news.uindy.edu/2015/07/14/kellogg-series-to-feature-acclaimed-writers/

For information, contact Kevin McKelvey at 317-788-2018.

Indiana Authors Award 2015

From the Eugene and Marilyn Glick  Indiana Authors Award website:

Poets Marianne Boruch and Adrian Matejka to receive national and regional awards from Library Foundation, three Emerging Author finalists selected

INDIANAPOLIS — For the first time, two poets have been selected as winners of the Indiana Authors Award. Purdue University professorMarianne Boruch is the winner of the $10,000 National Author prize given by the 2015 Eugene & Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Award.Adrian Matejka, Lilly Professor/Poet-in-Resident at Indiana University-Bloomington, has been named the Regional Author winner, earning him a $7,500 prize. The National and Regional winners, along with finalists in the Emerging Author category, will be honored at the seventh-annual Indiana Authors Award Dinner on October 10, 2015, at the Central Library in Indianapolis.

“I am grateful to be invited into the company of previous Indiana Authors Award winners such as Susan Neville, Barbara Shoup, Michael Martone, Helen Frost and many others,” said Boruch. “Thanks to the late Eugene and Marilyn Glick for bringing attention to writing and reading as an art and act of courage and invention, and for honoring the ancient notion of the library —  a lightning bolt and beloved storage unit for human culture.”

Marianne Boruch

This annual award program recognizes Indiana authors’ contributions to the literary landscape in Indiana and across the nation. The Eugene & Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Award is a program of The Indianapolis Public Library Foundation and is funded through the generosity of The Glick Fund, a fund of Central Indiana Community Foundation.

Award nominations were submitted from across the state in early spring. Any published writer who was born in Indiana or has lived in Indiana for at least five years was eligible. An eight-member, statewide Award Panel selected the National and Regional winners and the three Emerging Author finalists from the pool of publicly nominated authors.

National Author – $10,000 prize: A writer with Indiana ties, but whose work is known and read throughout the country. National authors are evaluated on their entire body of work. This award recipient will also designate a $2,500 grant for the public library of his or her choosing.

2015 winner: Marianne Boruch

Adrian Matejka

Regional Author – $7,500 prize: A writer who is well-known and respected throughout the state of Indiana. Regional authors were evaluated on their entire body of work. This award recipient will also designate a $2,500 grant for the public library of his or her choosing.

2015 winner: Adrian Matejka

Emerging Author – $5,000 prize: A writer who has published no more than two books during his/her lifetime. The title(s) must have been published within the last 10 years. Emerging authors were evaluated on these specific works. The award recipient will designate a $2,500 grant for the public library of his or her choosing. The Emerging Author winner will be named at the Oct. 10 Award Dinner.

2015 finalists: Laura Bates, Skila Brown and Clifford Garstang

The only other poets to win Indiana Authors Awards are Norbert Krapf (Regional 2014), Miocah Ling (Emerging 2011), and helen Frost (Regional 2011).

Note that the Emerging Artist Award will be announced later. One of the finalists, Skila Brown, specializes in novels in verse.

Skila Brown

Skila Brown is the author of “Caminar,” a novel in verse set in 1981 Guatemala, about a boy who survives the massacre of his village and must decide what being a man during a time of war really means. Forthcoming books include the picture book “Slickety Quick: Poems About Sharks” and the verse novel “To Stay Alive: Mary Ann Graves and the Tragic Journey of the Donner Party,” all from Candlewick Press. She holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She grew up in Kentucky and Tennessee, lived for a bit in Guatemala, and now resides with her family in Indiana.

For more information, visit www.skilabrown.com.