Literary Events Around Indiana
October 2021
Updated 10/18
There are many great literary events around Indiana – October 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 – October 2021.
To be featured in our “Literary Events Around Indiana” monthly events blog, email the details to mail@indianawriters.org.
First Friday Virtual Write-Ins
Friday, October 1 at 6:30 p.m.
First Friday Virtual Write-Ins
with SCSinC and the Indiana Writer’s Center
Join Speed City Sisters in Crime on September 3rd for First Friday of the month Virtual Write-Ins via Zoom. All writers are welcome to participate. Free event – register at Eventbrite to get the event link.
First Friday Art Love at the Garfield Brewery
Friday, October 1 at 6:00 PM
Come join us for our first First Friday Art Event at the Garfield Brewery. Our special guests include a bevy of talented artists like Januarie York (Spoken Word/Poetry), Karisa Smith (Visual Art), Ben Justus (Music, Singer-Songwriter), Kyle “Skoot” Ammerman (Visual Art), Michael Doty (Deejay), Ian Rossman (Poetry, Master of Ceremonies), Jason Ammerman (Spoken Word/Poetry) and many more. More info to come as the event approaches! Food, beer, art, music, poetry, culture, and love!! What more could anyone ask for?
Keep an eye on our Facebook Event Page for updates!
That Peace Open Mic
The Re-Up: An Art and Wellness Festival Presented by That Peace Open Mic
Saturday, October 2
Poetry and Open Mic 12:15 pm
@klovethepoet Live Performance on Main Stage 7 pm
Did we mention the mic is OPEN!? ?
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We’re super excited to bring our good sis, international spoken word artist and author? @klovethepoet, down from Chicago to host a FREE WRITING WORKSHOP + OPEN MIC at 12:15p on day two of the fest! ?
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no experience necessary. ?bring yourself, some good energy and come re-up with us! ?
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#ThatPeaceOpenMic?
#TheReup21 ?
Book Discussion: Somebody’s Daughter
Wednesday, October 6, 6:30 PM EST at Ash & Elm Cider Co.
Book lovers looking for community and discussion: this event is for you. Join us for a discussion of Somebody’s Daughter, a memoir by American writer, podcaster and educator Ashley C. Ford.
Writers Guild
Spoken Word Series
Wednesday, October 6, 6 PM EST
Writers Guild Spoken Word Series Online
The Writers Guild at Bloomington is an association of writers committed to mutual support and the professional development of their craft. Its mission is to foster interaction among writers as well as other artists, educators and the Monroe County public.
Poetry on Brick Street from Brick Street Poetry
Thursday, October 7 at 7PM
SullivanMunce Cultural Center 225 W Hawthorne St, Zionsville, IN 46077
Register for October’s Poetry On Brick Street with poet Rebecca Kai Dotlich. Capacity limited for social distancing and masks required. See you at the SullivanMunce Cultural Center. Open mic will follow reading
Marion County Historical Society Presents Poet Jared Carter
MARION COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRESENTS POET JARED CARTER
October 9, 2-3:30 pm
(Indianapolis) Ray E. Brown, Jr. will give an overview of poet Jared Carter’s life and works, and illustrate his remarks with historic and biographical photographs.
Carter, originally from the central Indiana town of Elwood, Wendell Willkie’s home town, has been an Indianapolis resident since 1969, and the recipient of national awards and honors for his poetry. He and his wife, Diane Carter, will
attend the lecture.
The event will take place October 9th from 2 to 3:30 p.m. in the Special Collections Room on the sixth floor, which can be reached by elevator. An exhibit of the author’s books may be found in the Atrium of the library. Through a variety of programs, conferences, grants, and publications, the Marion County Historical Society works to develop community awareness of the city of Indianapolis’s past and its impact on the present and future.
For additional information, please click “Programs” on the Society’s home page, which is https://www.mchsindy.org.
Wed., Oct. 13, 7:30 p.m., Indianapolis Athenaeum, 401 E. Michigan Street, as part of the monthly Stammtisch gathering of the Indiana German Heritage Society, I will be reading (admission free, open to the public) mainly from Indiana Hill Country Poems (2019), with its emphasis on German roots, a few poems from Southwest by Midwest (2020) and its Native American themes, and a few poems from this year’s chapbooks of poems for children, Peyton Potter Rides His Unicorn and Living with the Animals. All these recent books will be available, some at discounted prices. If you’d be interested in buying copies but can’t make this reading, send me an email and I’ll give you the details. These books will make good gift items for the holidays, signed, inscribed, and dated.
Memoir Reading with Terese Marie Mailhot
October 14 @ 7:30 pm
UIndy Hall A, Schwitzer Student Center
And via Zoom
Memoir Reading with Terese Marie Mailhot
Terese Marie Mailhot is the New York Times bestselling author of “Heart Berries: A Memoir.” Her book was also the January 2020 pick for Now Read This, a book club from PBS Newshour and The New York Times. Heart Berries was also listed as an NPR Best Book of the Year, a Library Journal Best Book of the Year, a New York Public Library Best Book of the Year, a Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year, and was one of Harper’s Bazaar‘s Best Books of 2018. She is the recipient of a 2019 Whiting Award, and she is also the recipient of the Spalding Prize for the Promotion of Peace and Justice in Literature. Is She from Seabird Island Band and teaches creative writing at Purdue University and VCFA.
An Evening with Kevin Prufer
Presented by Visiting Writers Series of Butler University, Monday, October 18 at 7:30 p.m., Shelton Auditorium, Free.
Award winning poet and professor of creative writing at the University of Houston, Kevin Prufer will discuss his work and participate in an audience Q&A and book signing.
The newest of Kevin Prufer’s many poetry books are The Art of Fiction (Four Way, 2021) and How He Loved Them (Four Way, 2018), which won the Julie Suk Award and was long-listed for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize. Among Prufer’s awards and honors are four Pushcart Prizes and several Best American Poetry selections, numerous awards from the Poetry Society of America, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lannan Foundation.
Admission is free to the public and does not require a ticket.
Celebrate the stories of the city with the Indianapolis Art Center’s inaugural literary event Art of the Word. This free event is collaborative byproduct of the Art Center, the Indiana Writers Center, Booth Magazine, Indiana Humanities, and the Indianapolis Anthology.
Listen to works of emerging and established authors, partake in art activities, and browse around a pop-up book fair featuring local shops and literary organizations.
Sarah Layden will be a reader representing IWC and instructor Lydia Johnson will be facilitating a blackout poetry activity during the event.
Visit the Art of the Word Facebook event page to Invite Your Friends and Share!
Words Out Poetry Cafe poetry reading
Saturday, October 23, 2021 1:00 – 4:00 PM EST
20 N State St Ste A
Greenfield, IN 46140
A poetry reading at Twenty North Gallery where you can listen to 15 accomplished poets read their original works; they also will have books available to sign.
There will be a break with a presentation and coffee testing from local coffee roaster, Scattered Bean Coffee. During this break, Bards on the Run will be available for poems written on the spot via typewriters. They will also be available after the reading as well.
Poets participating are: Lylanne Musselman, Mary Sexson, Jeffrey Owen Pearson, Michael Brockley, James Green, George Wolfe, Liza Hyatt, JL Kato, Jason Ammerman, Natalie Solmer, Barry Harris, Rosaleen Crowley, Fredrick Michaels, Dan Carpenter, and Leah McNaughton Lederman.
It will be a great day filled with literary enjoyment in honor of Greenfield’s James Whitcomb Riley.
The Virtual Erma: Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop
Virtual Ann Katz Festival: Rachel Beanland
Tuesday, Oct 26 at 7 PM:
IWC Writer-in-Residence, Barbara Shoup will interview novelist Rachel Beanland, the bestselling author of Florence Adler Swims Forever, as part of JCC Indianapolis’ Virtual Ann Katz Festival.
This New York Times Best Seller is a thought-provoking and entertaining read. Inspired by her own family history, in her debut novel Beanland takes readers to 1930s Atlantic City, where a multigenerational Jewish family grapples with the aftermath of a shocking tragedy over the course of a summer. Florence Adler Swims Forever is the winner of the 2020 National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and one of USA Today’s “Best Books of 2020.”
Cost: $10 for ticket only; $17 for ticket+book
Visit the Virtual Ann Katz Festival page to get your ticket!
Poet Mary Biddinger
Event by The Rufus & Louise Reiberg Reading Series at IUPUI
IUPUI University Library (Lilly Auditorium) October 28 at 7:30 PM EST
Mary Biddinger’s newest poetry collection, Department of Elegy, will be published by Black Lawrence Press in early 2022. Her poems and flash fiction have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Bennington Review, Crazyhorse, DIAGRAM, and Thrush, among others. She is editor of the Akron Series in Poetry at the University of Akron Press, and recipient of awards and fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts, and Cleveland Arts Prize. She serves as professor and assistant chair of English at the University of Akron, and teaches in the NEOMFA program.
Like and Share the Facebook Event for Poet Mary Biddinger
IndyPL Authors Fair
October 30, 2021, 11 AM- 2:30 PM
Join fellow writers and participate in free workshops led by local authors and experts from the Indiana Writers Center. The IndyPL Author Fair will feature more than 40 up-and-coming authors representing a wide variety of writing styles and genres available to sign and sell their books.
Once Upon a Pandemic: Publishing Your Story During a Global Crisis
Presented by Northwestern University’s MA in Writing & MFA in Prose and Poetry Programs on Thursday, October 28 at 1 p.m., free online event.
Join Northwestern University School of Professional Studies (SPS) for an online conversation between two award-winning authors on writing, publishing fiction during the pandemic, and the role of storytelling in society. The talk features SPS MFA in Prose and Poetry faculty member Lori Rader-Day, author of The Lucky One, and special guest Christopher Coake, author of You Would Have Told Me Not To.
The virtual event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. To register: https://tinyurl.com/vmmat2kh
David Sedaris on Tour in the Area! Tickets Going Fast!
With sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, David Sedaris has become one of America’s pre-eminent humor writers. The great skill with which he slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves that Sedaris is a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today.
Bloomington, IN; 12/15/21 Carmel, IN; Columbus, OH; Dayton, OH; Cincinnati, OH; Chicago, IL; Louisville, KY