Never Can Say Goodbye

IR readers,

I hate leaving parties early, because I always feel like I’m going to miss something. And I hate being the last one to leave, because that just means the fun is over. So it’s safe to say that I have a problem with goodbyes. Having to write this last blog post makes me realize how much I’ve enjoyed my time here at IR. It’s been a pleasure reading the works of the writers that have made it into the summer and winter issues during my tenure. I’ve gotten the chance to work on an extraordinary journal with people who aren’t just co-workers but really some of my best friends. I can’t think of a better editor than Alessandra Simmons, who has managed to get us through so many problems from an ice storm to the first (and hopefully annual) Blue Light Reading Series, all while staying calm and patient. For a person that’s prone to worry, Alessandra has definitely kept me level-headed. Among the things I’ll miss the most will be Saturday reading sessions in the office with Keith. While we might have been there for hours, it never felt like work. And to Deborah Kim who will be taking over as the new editor, I don’t think I could have made it through all the fiction submissions this year without you. Thanks for the amazing eye.

With Deborah Kim, returning non-fiction editor Sarah Suksiri, and the two new genre editors Rachel Lyon and Catie Lycurgus, Indiana Review has a bright future.

This has been an incredible experience. To the readers, thank you for all the ways you contribute to helping IR stay great by continuing to read and submit.

-Kurian

Adieu, mon blog...

Poetry Peoples,

This will be my last blog entry from this poetry editor. I am genuinely saddened by the ending of my tenure here at our faithful magazine. It's be a pleasure and a half. Being able to read new work by some of my favorite authors and building a store of authors I plan on looking out for over the new few years has been an exciting process. Plus, working with the editing team here has been a dream. Good people abound.

No worries, though. I’ll be passing the torch to Catie Lycurgus, a stellar poet and top-notch critic. I’ve had the pleasure of sharing two workshops with Catie and I can tell you she is one of the best readers I’ve ever encountered. I’m excited to see the issues she helps throw together. Guaranteed to be the hottness.

As a sort of greatest hits to play me out, I’ll lay out the poetry related websites I’ve featured on this blog all in one awesome list for you to peruse. Thank you for reading, poetry peoples.

http://howapoemhappens.blogspot.com/

linebreak.org

http://fishousepoems.org/

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/offthecharts/webkaraoke.html

http://motionpoems.com/

Bornmagazine.org

Be well,

Keith

Publication celebration

We're pleased to to announce Bob Thurber, who wrote the evocative  "Belly Breathing" in 32.2, has a novel out on May 1st! Paperboy will be published by Casperian Books and sounds fascinating. He says:

It's an odd book, unconventional in the sense that its 262 pages are made up of 157 chapters, many of them that could stand alone as very small fictions or vignettes. Many are only a page or less of text, and though there's digression in the story line, the book still resists being a "novel in fragments." As one reviewer put it the sections or mini-chapters "build upon, echo, reflect, and shatter each other." 

Check out some early reviews at B&N, Good Reads, and 3G1B.

dk

Not quite yet

In high school I listened to The Doors and their song, "The End," keeps playing in my head as I walk around Bloomington, as I sit at my desk at IR.

The last two posts have noted that poetry and fiction will close for the summer as Indiana Review slows down with only two editors holding down the fort. Not only are submissions closing, but my time as editor is coming to a close as well...but not quite the end yet! We still have 3 weeks before the official changing of the guard and 2 weeks until those submissions are closed (so get on it, and send us your work!). Still, less then a month left to wrap things up is making me me nostalgic.

So what does one do when they are feeling nostalgic and looking forward to the activities of the next three weeks. Why read poetry of course! Here's a poem for the occasion:

Be Drunk
by Charles Baudelaire
translated by Louis Simpson

You have to be always drunk. That's all there is to it—it's the only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually drunk.

But on what? Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be drunk.

And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace or the green grass of a ditch, in the mournful solitude of your room, you wake again, drunkenness already diminishing or gone, ask the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock, everything that is flying, everything that is groaning, everything that is rolling, everything that is singing, everything that is speaking. . .ask what time it is and wind, wave, star, bird, clock will answer you: "It is time to be drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of time, be drunk, be continually drunk! On wine, on poetry or on virtue as you wish."

All my IR love,

Alessandra

Poetry Submissions Closing: April 30th

Poetry peoples,

We will be closing our poetry submissions for the summer. Please submit by April 30th.

Submissions will reopen September 1st.

Best,

Keith

Fiction Submissions Closing 4/30

Hey All,
 
The current reading period for fiction at Indiana Review will come to an end on April 30th. Please submit before the deadline.



-Kurian

Blue Light Reading Series 2011!

We had a spectacular turnout for the first Blue Light Reading Series on March 25! (More photos can be viewed on our Facebook page.)

We were honored to have poets Curtis Bauer, Steve Scafidi, and Erika Meitner read their illuminating work. The event also featured three splendid broadsides crafted by IU students. Our sincerest thanks to everyone -- attendees, sponsors, and of course, our gracious guests! We hope to continue the series and the celebration.

dk

Congratulations are in order

On this rainy and thundery day Indiana is soaked and looking a little ominous.  But we have something to celebrate! Jessica Westhead, contributor for issue 32.1 with the story "We Are All About Wendy Now" just came out with a new short story collection, called And Also Sharks.  I can't wait to read it. And such a cool cover! Here is the synopsis.

The forlornly funny stories in And Also Sharks celebrate the socially awkward, the insecure, the unfulfilled, and the obsessed.

A disgruntled follower of a self-esteem blog posts a rambling critical comment. On the hunt for the perfect coffee table, a pregnant woman and her husband stop to visit his terminally ill ex-wife. The office cat lady reluctantly joins her fellow employees’ crusade to cheer up their dying co-worker. A man grieving his wife’s miscarriages follows his deluded friend on a stealth photo-taking mission at the Auto Show. A shoplifter creates her own narrative with stolen anecdotes and a kidnapped baby.

In this collection, society’s misfits and losers are portrayed sympathetically, and sometimes even heroically. As desperately as these characters long to fit in, they also take pride in what sets them apart.

And Also Sharks, my new short story collection, ended up being scheduled for a spring publication instead of fall, and it's out now!

http://www.cormorantbooks.com/titles/andalsosharks.shtml

 

(It's not currently being sold in the States, but it is available outside of Canada, through Amazon.)

Great Expectations

On Expectations (And A Writer's Lack Of Same)

I want to recommend S.J. Culver's post on getting rejected from a journal he submitted to 838 days prior and how it caused him to rethink his feelings about the disappointment that seems to come inherently in the submission process. My times as fiction editor at the Indiana Review is almost up, and I've gotten the chance to read some enjoyable stories that have not made it into the journal. I've been thinking lately about how the process of submitting and being rejected takes a toll on a writer's mind. Even though we shouldn't, we feel disappointed, angry, even confused, and Culver's post helped to put it into perspective.

-Kurian

Poetry on the Interwebs: How a Poem Happens Blog

Poetry Peoples,

In this week's installment of our sometimes series on websites featuring poetry, we bring you Brian Brodeur's "How a Poem Happens."

The blog follows a pretty standard, but largely effective, structure. Each week, Mr. Brodeur interviews a new poet about one of his or her poems asking the same fifteen questions about the piece's generation, its editing process, whether the poet considers it "narrative" or "lyric," and whether or not the poet feels the piece was "finished" or "abandoned." This uniform formatting of the interview actually helps make each interview distinct, as it points to the unique lens each poet brings to their thinking of poetry. Moreover, Mr. Brodeur seems tapped into a vein of exciting new poets such as Nicky Beer, Adrian Blevins, Todd Boss, Traci Brimhall, Matthew Dickman... (and that's just up to the D's).

This week's interview coincidently features Ross Gay, an instructor here at IU and damn good poet. Well worth checking out. Click on the picture to do so.

Be well,

Keith