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

World Poetry Day!!

Here at Indiana Review, we are all wearing party hats, neon pants, and flashy gold earrings to celebrate World Poetry Day.

We also are handing out and hanging up our posters for our upcoming poetry reading! Yay! We are so excited. If you haven't heard about it yet, check it out: The details are on our website and on facebook. Yup! Erika Meitner, Steve Scafidi, and Curtis Bauer are coming here to read & to celebrate on Friday March 25.

Coincidentally, March 25 also ends our Poetry Contest -- so as fun as dancing in neon pants is in celebration of World Poetry day, sit down an minute and submit online or via the snail mail to our prize. Give us a chance to read your work, give yourself a chance to win $1000 and publication. Details Here.

Then dance some more.

Countdown to the Blue Light Reading Series!

Readers,

 Fourteen days until the first (and what is hopefully annual) Blue Light Reading Series featuring Steve Scafidi, Erika Meitner, and Curtis Bauer. Hope to see you there!

-Kurian

I'd read it.

Surely you've seen this strip plastered everywhere on the internet -- from Hark, a vagrant #263 by Kate Beaton. I think the Austen sequel/revision trend has gotten stale by now, but this is still priceless. (The Gatsbys are great, too.) I wanted to take this opportunity to say that we at IR are always looking for art. Right now we're particularly interested in the literary comic sort! Have you any for us?

dk