Literary Events Around Indiana
November 2021
Updated 11/30
There are many great literary events around Indiana – November 2021. Looking for something to do? Below are just a few ideas.
Many events are virtual. Please confirm with the venue for scheduled events listed in Literary Events Around Indiana – November 2021.
To be featured in our “Literary Events Around Indiana” monthly events blog, email the details to mail@indianawriters.org.
First Friday! Virtual Write-in
Join Sisters in Crime (and brothers) and make some progress on your latest writing project the first Friday of each month at 6:30 p.m. Run through some writing sprints! Register for November’s First Friday Write-In
Spirit & Place presents The (W)hole in our HeARTs
Nov. 6 from 10am-12pm
1st Floor Stokol Gallery & 2nd Floor Switzer Gallery
Family activities on Saturday include printmaking, coloring pages, Zen bracelets, affirmation rocks, and more!
Exhibit open Nov. 4-14.
First Friday exhibition viewing on Nov. 5 from 5-9pm. (2nd Floor Switzer Gallery)
Art benefits everyone and this interactive event focuses on ways to actively integrate art into personal and community life to combat loneliness and loss.
Coping with the loneliness, isolation, depression, anxiety, fear, and loss that has been a part of our collective lives for more than a year is hard. But we don’t need to face these challenges alone. Artists who have experienced mental health issues will showcase work that invites the community to share their own stories and feelings. Through two exhibitions (one virtual and the other in a gallery setting), community-created art project, writings, spoken activities, and more, participants—including families!—are invited to experience and create art that aims to mend the holes in our hearts and inspire a sense of wholeness.
An Evening with G. Willow Wilson
Tuesday, November 9, 7:30 PM
Shelton Auditorium, Butler South Campus
Hugo and American Book Award-winning
graphic novelist and journalist
Co-Sponsored by the Muslim Studies Endowment
Raised in New Jersey, G. Willow Wilson has described herself during her teen years as “an upper-middle-class American white girl with bland politics and polite beliefs.” In her early 20’s she converted to Islam, and soon after began dedicating her talents to writing her award-winning novels, comic series, and memoire.
Wilson’s popularity soared with the publication of her hugely successful Ms. Marvel comic series in which the superhero is a Pakistani-American teenage girl from New Jersey. The series has been hailed by superhero fans and critics alike, winning both a Hugo and an American Book Award, while a television series is in production and set to premiere on Disney+ in 2022.
Her first novel Alif the Unseen won the 2013 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, was a finalist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, and was long-listed for the 2013 Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Her current novel, The Bird King, asks us to consider what love is and the price of freedom at a time when the West and the Muslim world were not yet separate. NPR called it one of the top 50 Fantasy Books of the Decade, saying “I loved this book so much . . . It’s deeply beautiful and wondrously sad, and I can’t tell if it ended too quickly or if I just needed it not to—if I just wanted to dwell in a home built out of story for a little longer yet.”
Indiana Playwrights Circle: Ten-Minute Play Festival
November 11-14, 7:30 – 9:00 PM EST
2021 IndyFringe Basile Theatre
719 E. St. Clair St., Indianapolis, IN 46203
7 new plays from Indiana-based playwrights were selected for this year’s festival presented by 7 different theatre companies! From awkward interactions at a dog park to getting lost inside a cave, you won’t know what’s coming next. These will make you laugh, cry, and reflect on your relationships, as the Indiana Playwrights Circle takes you through 7 unique stories all in 90 minutes!
“Two Yards of Satan” by Kelly McBurnette-Andronicos (produced by Westfield Playhouse, directed by Kate Hinman)
“Terms and Conditions” by Mary Karty (produced by Emerging Artists Theatre, directed by Anthony Nathan)
“Scavengers” by Marcia Eppich-Harris (produced by Catalyst Repertory Theatre, directed by Casey Ross)
“Dog Park” by Josie Gingrich (produced by Theatre Unchained, directed by Megan Ann Jacobs)
“Karma Cop” by Megan Ann Jacobs (Produced by Elliot Productions, directed by Spencer Elliot)
“Echoes” by Garret Schneider (produced by Monument Theatre Company, directed by Maverick Schmidt)
“Nice Knowing You” by Lou Harry (produced by American Lives Theatre, directed by Joe Barsanti)
Ten-Minute Play Festival Tickets Available!
Kristine Esser Slentz reads from Woman, Deposed
Thursday, Nov 11 7:00 PM CT
Online event
Join via Kristine Esser Slentz’s webpage
Check out Dance Kaleidoscope’s performances inspired by the writing
(performance available until Nov 28)
National Book Awards Ceremony
Wednesday November 17, 2021 7:00 PM EST
The National Book Awards Ceremony is exclusively digital for the second year running, and we want to reach as many book-lovers around the world as possible! One of the brightest spots of the past year-plus and counting is our work on the Literary Arts Emergency Fund. You are such a big part of what we’re celebrating––we hope you can join us!
#NBAwards
Hosted by @dopequeenpheebs.
@nationalbook’s website: https://nationalbook.org/awards
What it Means to be Human
Sat Nov 20
3:00 PM – 7:00 PM EST
Tube Factory Artspace (home of Big Car Collaborative)
1125 Cruft Street
Indianapolis, IN 46203
What It Means to Be Human honors the legacies of Mari Evans and Etheridge Knight: poets who grew to international prominence while maintaining ties to Indianapolis. The festival will gather local artists and scholars to put the writers’ contributions to literature and the community into perspective. Events will include a scholar’s panel, generative poetry workshops, and a poetry reading. All events will be free to the public with registration through Eventbrite required for attendance. Complimentary drinks and snacks will be served.
Interested? See more about the schedule and workshops.
Fall Fest Featuring Sybrina Fulton and Slammin Rhymes Poetry Challenge
Sat 11/20 12:00 – 4:00 PM EST
Indianapolis Public Library
Join us at Central Library for a keynote lecture from author and activist Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin and the Slammin’ Rhymes teen rap/poetry challenge awards, plus Swirl Eshe-hula hoop fitness, 317Svn Street Dance Academy, Bounce Back Indiana Kangoo Bounce Fitness, and poet Chanteil Bradley.
Events will all take place in the Clowes Auditorium at Central Library, located at the north end of the 2nd floor. All events are free and open to the public, no registration is required.
Made possible by the Donna D. Talley Story Theatre Fund, and Friends of the Library through gifts to The Indianapolis Public Library Foundation.
Coming up in December…
An Evening with Hanif Abdurraqib
New York Times best-selling poet, essayist, and cultural critic
Thursday, December 2, 2021, 7:30 PM
Shelton Auditorium
Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His poetry has been published in Muzzle, Vinyl, PEN American, and various other journals. His essays and music criticism have been published in The FADER, Pitchfork, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. His first full length poetry collection, The Crown Ain’t Worth Much, was released in June 2016 from Button Poetry. It was named a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Prize, and was nominated for a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award.
His first collection of essays, They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us, was released in winter 2017 by Two Dollar Radio and was named a book of the year by Buzzfeed, Esquire, NPR, Oprah Magazine, Paste, CBC, The Los Angeles Review, Pitchfork, and The Chicago Tribune, among others. He released Go Ahead In The Rain: Notes To A Tribe Called Quest with University of Texas press in February 2019. The book became a New York Times Bestseller, was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, and was longlisted for the National Book Award. His second collection of poems, A Fortune For Your Disaster, was released in 2019 by Tin House, and won the 2020 Lenore Marshall Prize. In 2021, he released the book A Little Devil In America with Random House, in which he chronicles Black performances over specific moments in time and how they have woven through the years into American culture.
Hanif is a graduate of Beechcroft High School.
Non-stalgia Anthology Book Release Party
Saturday, Dec 3 7:00 PM — Sunday Dec 4 9:00 PM EST
Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library
Enjoy readings by several of our contributing writers, pick up your copy of the book, and tour the fantastic Kurt Vonnegut Library & Museum. The bar will offer Upland beverages for purchase for those 21+.
The event is free to attend and all ages. Space is limited, so please ask any friends/family attending to RSVP through Eventbrite.
Read more about the anthology at www.nonstalgiafiction.com.
Indiana Historical Society Presents: Holiday Author Fair
Saturday, Dec 4, 12:00 – 4:00 PM EST
Indiana Historical Society
View the list of authors and to reserve your tickets
This event will take place Saturday, Dec. 4, and admission to the author fair is included with general admission to the Indiana Historical Society.
Author Fair book topics will range from sports and biographies to youth historical fiction and politics along with, of course, a lot of Indiana history. This year’s event features a scheduled appearance by two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, Al Unser Jr., who’ll be promoting his book, Al Unser Jr.: A Checkered Past, as told to author Jade Gurss.
IHS members will receive 10 percent off their entire Basile History Market purchase. Those who purchase a book will receive a coupon for IHS’s History Market, which features handmade Indiana products, art and ornaments for unique holiday gifts.
Guests are encouraged to purchase their admission tickets in advance in case capacity restrictions become necessary. Admission includes IHS’s award-winning Indiana Experience and the Festival of Trees holiday exhibit, with 75 elaborate trees decorating the building. To allow guests to mingle with the authors and have their books personalized and signed, masks will be required at this event.