Literary Events Around Indiana

June 2022

Updated 6/14/22

There are many great literary events around Indiana. Looking for something to do?  Below are just a few ideas.

Many events are virtual. Please confirm with the venue for scheduled events listed here.

To be featured in our “Literary Events Around Indiana” monthly events blog, email the details to mail@indianawriters.org.

“Read Out Loud” IWC and IndyPL summer workshop series

More information and registration

(Multiple dates, instructors, and locations!)

Woo Your Muse with Katrina Kittle

Wednesday, June 1, 2022

3:00 pm – 4:30 pm EDT

$$Free (sign in required) 

Do you need the inspiration (and nudge) to start a new project (or finally finish one)? Has your Muse stopped taking your calls? Did the pandemic steal your mojo? We’ll go over some practices to help you rediscover inspiration and jumpstart your writing, such as creating and defending a writing schedule, dealing with the inner critic, and “being a better host” to your writing. Suggested exercises and habits will get you back into a heated love affair with your Muse…and your writing practice.

For more details and to register click here

Katrina Kittle is the author of four books for adults—Traveling Light, Two Truths and a Lie, The Kindness of Strangers, and The Blessings of the Animals— and one novel for tweens, Reasons to Be Happy. The Kindness of Strangers was the winner of the 2006 Great Lakes Book Award for Fiction. Katrina teaches creative writing workshops for all ages, focusing on craft and motivation (and is especially good at jumpstarting stalled writers). She teaches online and in the Dayton-Cincinnati-Columbus area through Word’s Worth Writing Connections, and is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Dayton. She is a public speaker, most often leading her “Leap and the Net Will Appear” and “Happy Class” workshops. Katrina lives south of Dayton with her fella, her sweet beagle Serena, and her out-of-control garden. She has a thing for goats, gardening, and going barefoot; and is addicted to coffee, pedicures, and Indian food. You can occasionally see her on stage in local community theatre productions, and she is always at work on another novel. Her next novel, Morning in This Broken World, is forthcoming in June of 2023. 

Twitter Handle @katrinakittle 
Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/KatrinaKittleAuthor 
Instagram Handle @katrinakittle 
Website URL www.katrinakittle.com 

Writing for Mindfulness with Manon Voice

Weds June 8; 6:00 PM at IndyReads

In this workshop, participants will explore poetry as a medium of expression as well as a mindfulness and meditative practice that positively impacts our wellbeing. Participants will engage with a variety of prompts that allow them to practice creating and experimenting with poetry and writing styles that both intrigue and support their goals of healing and wellness.

Get your tickets here!

PRIDE Poetry Slam & Open Mic

June 11th at 6:30 PM IndyReads Bookstore

Booth, Butler MFA’s literary magazine, is partnered again with IndyReads to do a PRIDE Poetry Slam & Open Mic. We’d absolutely love for you to join the slam, or the open mic, and if you’d like to join us for either of those, please let me know!

Prizes include a subscription to Booth for one year, as well as a free used book from IndyReads.

INConversation with Robin Wall Kimmerer

June 14 6:30 – 8:30 at the Eiteljorg museum

In her writings, Kimmerer brings both her scientific knowledge as botanist and indigenous wisdom as an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation to ask and answer questions about our relationships with the more-than-human world. Through these lenses, she asks readers to envision a more reciprocal relationship with the earth, grounded in listening and learning from the plants that surround us.

Offered as part of Indiana Humanities’ Unearthed programming, a multiyear initiative encouraging Hoosiers to discover and discuss their relationships with the natural world, this INconversation will feature a reading followed by a moderated conversation with Felica Ahasteen-Bryant, director of Purdue University’s Native American Educational and Cultural Center. The evening will wrap up with an audience Q&A and book signing opportunity.

This event is free and open to the public. ASL interpretation will be provided.

Click here for more details and to register

Indy Story Slam

Indy Story Slam
June 15, 2022, 7 – 8:30 p.m.
In Collaboration with Freetown Village
Sponsored by Goelzer Investment Management
Media Sponsor: WFYI 
Hosted at Chatham Tap Butler
4702 Sunset Ave., Suite 100
Indianapolis, IN 46208
Questions? Email Ellen@storytellingarts.org

Indy Story Slam is a fun night for storytellers of every skill level, designed as an after-work event to relax and unwind. Storytellers of every skill level, or want-to-be storytellers, will have up to five minutes to tell a true story based on the monthly theme. The theme for June is “Pride.”

More Story Slam rules and signup

CBLC BookFest & Juneteenth celebration

The Center For Black Literature & Culture’s 5th Annual Indy Book Fest will offer a glimpse of the African American experience through arts, literature, and storytelling. We are bringing together poets, visual artists, storytellers, musicians, and book clubs to emphasize cultural literacy!

Including presentation with historian Dr. Annette Gordon-Reed as part of the YMCA Monster Meeting series

June 18 11:00 – 3:00 at the Central Library

A Night of Spooky Readings

The Horror Writers Association Chicagoland Chapter presents a Night of Spooky Readings at Green Door Books, 325 Main Street, Hobart, Indiana on Saturday, June 25, 2022 at 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Come out and join the HWA Chicagoland Chapter members as they read some of their scary stories. Members will also have their books available to purchase and sign. The reading event is free to the public. 
You can find the Horror Writers Association Chicagoland Chapter at www.HWAChicago.org or on Twitter @ChicagoHWA.  
For more information or questions please email:  hwachicagochapter@gmail.com

INConversation with Vann R. Newkirk

We invite you to join us on June 29 for a special INconversation with Vann R. Newkirk II, senior editor at The Atlantic, and the host and co-creator of the 2021 Peabody Award-winning podcast Floodlines.

In Floodlines, Newkirk and his team at The Atlantic exposed how history, media, policy and people interacted during the crisis that was Hurricane Katrina, bringing new insights to causes and outcomes of the 2005 disaster. The podcast, and Newkirk’s reporting broadly, demonstrates the importance of journalism in revealing the deep inequities that are at the heart of America’s climate crisis. During this INconversation program, we’ll discuss how journalism questions, describes and uncovers environmental inequalities, and how storytelling can inspire new, more equitable futures. Offered as part of Indiana Humanities’ Unearthed programming, a multiyear initiative encouraging Hoosiers to discover and discuss their relationships with the natural world, this INconversation will feature a moderated conversation with Rebecca Thiele, environment and energy reporter for Indiana Public Broadcasting News. This event is free and open to the public. ASL interpretation will be provided. Register

Brick Street Poetry

Poetry on Brick Street Series

We meet the first Thursday of every month at 7:00 pm at Sullivan Munce Cultural Center, 225 West Hawthorne Street, Zionsville, IN 46077.

The next month’s Guest Poet: Poets from the Haiku for Hikers anthology reading with accompanying PowerPoint.

Irving Theater Weekly Poetry Open Mic

Every Thursday night
7:00p – 9:00 PM EST
LOCAL POETS * ORIGINAL POETRY * COME READ OR LISTEN]

A completely nonjudgmental and safe space to share poetry! Every Thursday on the deck at the Irving Theater in the Summer, inside all Winter. Performances are broadcast live on our Facebook page (link below). Come enjoy original poetry and readings from local and regional artists, or present your own poetry.

This event is free.

FACEBOOK LIVE LINK  
For more information, visit the Irving Theater’s website

Books & Brews Open Mic