Updated 9/15/22

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@cjpk.net.

IUPUI Ray Bradbury Center F.451Indy

FESTIVAL 451iNDY IS A CELEBRATION OF THE HUMANITIES — a campaign that will encourage lifelong learning through a variety of public programs, collaborative workshops, performances, and other events throughout Indianapolis.

The Ray Bradbury Center will activate its vast collection to connect the larger Indianapolis community to Ray Bradbury’s unbounded imagination, to promote literacy, and encourage a kinder society that shares its gifts and talents for the greater good.

In Bradbury’s dark future of Fahrenheit 451, the authorities will let you ask how a thing is done, but you must never ask why. Festival 451indy encourages us to explore both questions.

Follow us on social media or click the button below to see how to participate!

SEE EVENTS

IndyReads Writing Series: Family Hour

Sam and Téa are returning this fall for a poetry writing series! Attend one or all three!
Register here

5-6pm is our family hour: we invite those 9 years old and older to join us. Children 13 and under are required to have parental supervision.

F?or the teen/young adults in your household, please click here.

The three week workshop will culminate with a poetry reading on our Indy Reads stage, where we invite participants back to showcase their work during a community open mic on October 4th at 7pm.

September 6 – 5pm Haiku

Learn about the ancient poetic form, Haiku, first found in Japanese literature in the 17th century. In this hands-on workshop, attendees will learn about the tradition of the Haiku, how it remains timeless, and how we can use an ancient art form to communicate modern day ideas. Using their newfound skills, participants will end this workshop with writing a Haiku of their own.

September 13 – 5pm Prose Poem

Practice making your words sing during this workshop where participants will learn how to write a prose poem. The rules of this form are loose, so we intend to have a lot of fun brainstorming and pushing the limits of the form. Come with an open mind and a ready hand and leave with a prose poem of your own!

September 27 – 5pm Burning Haibun

This workshop will use the skills gained in the first two lessons (however, newcomers are still welcome and encouraged to attend!) to write a newer form of poetry, the burning haibun. This poetic form combines the tradition of the Haiku with prose poetry and blackout poetry to create a thrilling and unique work of art. Participants will be guided step-by-step through the process of writing a poem in this form and leave the class with a poem of their very own.

COMMUNIVERSITY 2023 NOVEL: MIDDLEMARCH

Communiversity is a free, online, book-club-style course that is open to everyone — alumni, current students and community members alike. The course takes place throughout the semester and includes lectures and online discussions about the course’s book of focus — for this semester, George Eliot’s 1872 novel Middlemarch.

Virginia Woolf famously described Middlemarch as “one of the few English novels written for grown-up people.” Eliot’s masterpiece charts the lives of the members of the fictional English provincial town of Middlemarch as they navigate the great reform movements of the nineteenth century, including the status of women, suffrage, medical ethics, religion and education.

The course is held completely online (although, if desired, students can attend most lectures in person), and with manageable weekly readings and online discussions, the course is designed to fit into busy schedule.

FOR COMMUNITY MEMBERS WISHING TO ATTEND

Attendees do not need to be admitted UIndy students, and no tuition will be charged; the course is completely free. Registering for the course allows access to the online discussion forum and other course materials. The course is graded “credit/no credit,” so students may choose to participate as much or as little as they wish. Students may optionally choose to attend only the lectures (listed here) and not receive course credit; registration is not required to do so. 

Friday, September 01, 2023 , 12:00pm In-person and virtual

University of Indianapolis 1400 E Hanna Ave; Indianapolis, IN (317) 788-3368

Western Book Club: Peace Like a River

September 13 at 6:30 pm

Location: Virtual/Zoom Cost: Free

The Eiteljorg Museum’s Western Book Club, like the museum itself, is committed to including works that represent many different cultural values, attitudes, and points of view.

Members come together bimonthly to discuss books that represent the diversity of the American West and Indigenous peoples of North America. Meetings take place via Zoom, and are open to all.

Join us for a discussion of Peace Like a River: A Novel by Lief Enger, a best-selling American classic. It is at once a heroic quest, a tragedy, and a love story, in which “there is magic… none more potent than Leif Enger’s prose” (Newsday).

Register for September’s Western Book Club

B&N River Crossing Romance Book Club

Welcome to the B&N River Crossing Romance Book Club! This book club is open to anyone that wants to join, no reservations necessary. 

We will meet the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 6:30pm. This month we will be discussing Forget Me Not by Julie Soto. 

Sept 16
8675 River Crossing BlvdIndianapolis, IN 46240
(317) 816-1370

Tea Time Book Club

Register for Tea Time

Tomorrow Talks: Hector Tobar

Join Tomorrow Bookstore and Immigrant Welcome Center for an author talk with Héctor Tobar, the author of six books, including the New York Times bestseller Deep Down Dark, and recent memoir Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino”.

Héctor will talk about and sign copies of Our Migrant Souls, his memoir about the Latinx migrant experience in the United States. The event will be held at Indy Fringe’ Indy Eleven Theatre on Saturday, September 16th, 2023 from 6:00-8:00PM

T?he author discussion will be moderated by Luisa Macer, Manager of Community Outreach at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Immigrant Welcome Center board member, and book lover!

T?his event is part of Welcoming Week, an annual campaign and celebration to showcase the movement of communities striving to be more welcoming places for all, including immigrants.

T?hanks to IndyFringe Theatre for being our Venue Sponsor for this event

Saturday, Sept 16 · 6 – 8pm EDT IndyFringe Theatre 719 East Saint Clair Street Indianapolis, IN 46202
Get Tickets

Butler Visiting Writers Series: Jaquira Díaz

Whiting Award Winner for Nonfiction

Wednesday, September 20, 7:30PM

Schrott Center for the Arts

Born in Puerto Rico, Jaquira Díaz was raised between Humacao, Fajardo, and Miami Beach. She is the author of Ordinary Girls: A Memoir, winner of a Whiting Award, a Florida Book Awards Gold Medal, a Lambda Literary Awards finalist, and a number of other literary prizes. Ordinary Girls was optioned for television and is currently in development at FX with Díaz as Co-Executive Producer.

The recipient of two Pushcart Prizes, an Elizabeth George Foundation grant, and fellowships from MacDowell, the Kenyon Review, Bread Loaf, Sewanee, VCCA, the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, and the Beverly Rogers, Carol C. Harter Black Mountain Institute, Díaz has written for The Atlantic, The Guardian, Time Magazine, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Condé Nast Traveler, and The Fader, and her stories, poems, and essays have been anthologized in The Best American Essays, The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext, Best American Experimental Writing, and The Pushcart Prize anthology. In 2022, she held the Mina Hohenberg Darden Chair in Creative Writing at Old Dominion University’s MFA program and a Pabst Endowed Chair for Master Writers at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. She teaches creative writing at Colorado State University and Randolph College’s low-residency MFA program. Díaz’s debut novel, I Am Deliberate, is forthcoming from Algonquin Books. She splits her time between Las Vegas and Colorado with her spouse, the writer Lars Horn.

Kellogg Writers Series: Brian Evenson (Fiction Reading)

September 21, 2023; 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Schwitzer Student Center, University of Indianapolis

Free and open to the public!

The Kellogg Writers Series brings writers of distinction to the University of Indianapolis campus for classroom discussions and free public readings.

Brian Evenson is the author of over a dozen works of fiction. He has received three O. Henry Prizes for his fiction. His most recent book, Song for the Unraveling of the World, won a World Fantasy Award and a Shirley Jackson Award and was a finalist for both the Los Angeles Times Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction and the Balcones Fiction Prize. He lives in Los Angeles and teaches at CalArts.

WitLITS Book Discussion Group

Friday, September 22 10:00am – 11:30am

Spades Park Branch

A read aloud group exploring classic literature in a group reading.

Do you like classic American Literature? Do you enjoy listening to literature read out loud? Then consider WitLITS where our bookclub requires one thing – show up. No reading at home, no worries about not being caught up. Share a small group experience while listening to a book read out loud in short segments by members of the group while following along in your own copy. With frequent stops to discuss often overlooked meaning in the text. Join Us!

Brightlane Learning Book Club Hosted by the IDEA Committee

Join our book club as we come together, learn, and have candid conversations about poverty and systemic issues in America.

About this Event: Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott follows eight dramatic years in the life of Dasani, a girl whose imagination is as soaring as the skyscrapers near her Brooklyn shelter.

Book Club Meeting Dates: Join the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Awareness) Committee on the first Tuesday of every month starting in February as we discuss this Pulitzer Prize Winner nonfiction book and engage in larger conversations surrounding poverty and systemic issues in America. Each meeting will correspond with a section of the book.

• Tues, Feb 7 – Part 1
• Tues, March 7 – Part 2
• Tues, April 4 – Part 3
• Tues, June 6 – Part 4
• Tues, July 11 – Part 5
• Tues, August 1 – Part 6
• Tues, September 12 – Part 7

Meetings will be from 6:30-7:30 pm at the Brightlane Learning office at 2955 N Meridian Street Ste 250, Indianapolis, IN 46208. Light refreshments will be served. This book club is free and open to anyone.

In-person attendance is highly encouraged. However, there will be a virtual Zoom option for those who are unable to make it to our office space.

Please note: your attendance is welcomed even if you have not yet read the corresponding section of the book we will be discussing or were unable to attend a previous meeting.

VOCAB (Monthly)

Hosted by Cory Ewing & Januarie York with sounds by DJ Cleopatra

Door 8pm, Show 9pm General Admission *$10 at the door / advance tickets here

White Rabbit Cabaret, 1116 Prospect Street, Indianapolis, United States

Spoken Word ELEVATED: Black Excellence

Rhythm & Poetry Open Mic at PHIRI Art Gallery (Weekly)

Come Experience the Ultimate Vibe with LIVE performances by some of your favorite artists! RHYTHM & POETRY THURSDAYS is also an awesome way to network with like-minded creatives and business professionals from around the city, so be ready to connect with other amazing individuals!

DO0RS OPEN AT 7PM***LIVE PERFORMANCES AT 8:00PM

**ALL ATTENDEES WILL RECEIVE:

* Discounts on Photoshoots*

*Discounts on venue rentals

* Discounts on Upcoming Events at Phiri

* Discounts on all services at PHIRI

INFO 404.759.0530 ** 120 East Market Street, Indianapolis

An Evening with the Authors (Monthly)

Every first Thursday of the month

*Fake Authors. Fake Books. Real Funny.

Where literary satire meets sketch comedy.

Comedians take the stage posing as accomplished authors reading from their most recent works.

Featuring: Sam Griswold, Pauline Shypula, Jonathan Pfendler, Stephen Vincent Giles, Gwen Sunkel, Eric Sablan, Mariah Davison and guests

White Rabbit Cabaret 1116 Prospect Street Indianapolis, IN 46203

Tea’s the Artist Youth Open Mic Night (Monthly)

Thurs Dec 16 (every third Friday)

Our 3rd Friday is BACCCKKKKK!!! You won’t want to miss the Open Mic night centered around youth & teens and very family centric!!

Calling all youth, teenagers and adults to the stage to share your talents with us. From singing to dancing. Poetry to Spoken Word. Piano to Saxophone. Whatever your talent is, AS LONG AS IT’S FAMILY appropriate, we want YOU!

Tea’s Me Cafe Indy (140 E. 22nd Street, Ste. B, Indianapolis, IN 46214)

Writers Helping Writers (Monthly)

Hancock County Public Library has a writing group that meets on the third Wednesday of each month. Join us!

Brick Street Poetry (monthly)

Off the Bricks, a Poetry on Brick Street Podcast

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.

Margarita Mondays Open Mic

Welcome to Margarita Mondays Open Mic Night where you too can be a star

ILLUSIONS 3661 W 86th st

We welcome all comedians rappers poets and singers. Doors open at 8pm

Admission is free. Hosted by Aisha the Comedian and Mic Shaw.

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