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, thereby enhancing the vibrancy of the arts and the writing community in the greater Bloomington area.
Events Calendar
A bilingual poetry reading of Marianna Kiyanovska’s work followed by a conversation with Professor Russell Valentino, chair of the Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures department
Kiyanovska is one of Ukraine’s most celebrated poets.
Halina Goldberg, professor of musicology at the IU Jacobs School of Music and director of the IU Byrnes Russian and East European Institute, will introduce the poet. The event will be followed by a small reception.
The reading will be bilingual—each poem will be read first by the poet in the original Ukrainian, and each will be followed by a reading of the English translation. See https://books.huri.harvard.edu/authors/336 and https://books.huri.harvard.edu/books/voices-babyn-yar for more information about the poet and her latest book.
Marianna Kiyanovska, reading recent work
Morgenstern’s Bookstore & Café, 849 S Auto Mall Road, Bloomington, on Saturday, October 19, from 1 – 2 p.m.
The reading will be bilingual—each poem will be read first by the poet in the original Ukrainian, and each will be followed by a reading of the English translation. See https://books.huri.harvard.edu/authors/336 and https://books.huri.harvard.edu/books/voices-babyn-yar for more information about one of Ukraine’s most celebrated poets, and her latest book.
Constellation Stage & Screen presents
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs!
on stage October 25 – November 10 at the Waldron Auditorium
A musical “tail” that will bring the house down! There are two sides to every story, and when the Big Bad Wolf takes the stand in Piggsylvania’s Trial of the Century, he finally gets his say. But whether he’ll get a fair trial in a corrupt piggy court is anyone’s guess. Will the pigs’ splashy show make a puppet out of justice, or is the wolf’s song and dance about a sneeze gone wrong all razzle-dazzle? Enter the jury box and help decide the fate of Big ‘n’ Bad in this musical adaptation of the hit children’s book.
Fun for all ages! Featuring a Sensory-Friendly performance on Sun, November 10 at 4:00pm (tickets to this performance are Pay What You Will).
For showtimes, tickets, and more information, visit https://seeconstellation.org/kids/three-little-pigs/
Join Off Night Pr
oductions for In Her Words: A Celebration of Female Playwrights, a play-reading festival running October 27-29 at the Constellation Playhouse.
Four plays written by women will be presented by four local, women-led theater companies.
2:00 PM on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 27: A Selection of Scenes from Resilience: Indiana’s Untold Stories by Gladys Devane in collaboration with Danielle Bruce will be presented by Resilience Productions.
7:00 PM on Sunday evening, Oct. 27: By ASYLUM or Madness & the Whole Thing by Patricia Kranke, presented by Monroe County Civic Theatre.
7:00 PM on Monday, Oct. 28: The Babel Theater Project will present a reading of Ana Carneiro’s Babel.
7:00 PM on Tuesday, Oct. 29: Off Night Productions will close out the festival with the hilarious and poignant Five Times In One Night by Chiara Atik.
Don’t miss this celebration of female voices in theater! Learn more and purchase tickets at www.offnightproductions.org
The Writers Guild at Bloomington presents
Last Sunday Poetry
Featuring James Dorr and Hysteria
Morgenstern’s Bookstore & Café, 849 S. Auto Mall Rd., Bloomington IN 47401
Sunday, October 27, 2024
7-8:30pm
JAMES DORR‘s Avoid Seeing a Mouse and Other Tales of the Real and Surreal is a January 2024 release from Alien Buddha Press. Other books include his 2013 Bram Stoker Award nominee for Fiction Collection, The Tears of Isis, Tombs: A Chronicle of Latter-Day Times of Earth, and his all-poetry Vamps (A Retrospective). Specializing in dark fantasy/horror with forays into mystery and science fiction, Dorr has been a technical writer, an editor for a regional magazine, a full-time nonfiction freelancer, and a semi-professional musician. He currently harbors a Goth cat named Triana, and counts among his major influences Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allan Poe, Allen Ginsberg, and Bertolt Brecht.
Purchase his books at:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B004XWCVUS
HYSTERIA is a poet and performance artist who mixes costume, theater, and music into many of her sets. She dances around a few different topics in her writing, such as trauma, feminism, and mental health. Leaning heavily into morbid beauty as well, her first chapbook, Nature and the Amygdala (Pure Sleeze Press, September 2024), takes you deep into the woods, straight to the heart of the creatures that dwell there, and to the part of the brain that holds the fear of the unknown.
This is the Halloween edition of LSP, so feel free to attend in costume!
Emerging poets who need a supportive audience, and established poets who want to promote published works: Sign up for open mic! Your words are precious. (2-3 min. per open mic participant)
Come 20-40 min. before the 7pm program start time so you can:
– Sign up for open mic
– Meet and greet featured poets, and each other
– Purchase the store’s books and gift items
– Donate to the Writers Guild via cash
The Writers Guild at Bloomington is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusivity.
https://writersguildbloomington.com/
Mark your calendars!
Go to the Book Fair tab on this website for details or Click Here to take you there!
For more information, contact the Writers Guild: contact@writersguildbloomington.com
Writers Guild of Bloomington presents First Sunday Prose
Featured readers Susan Brackney and Bruce Kell
followed by open mic 
A professional writer since 1995, Susan has written for the Boy Scouts, stoners, interventional radiologists, would-be beekeepers, depressives, the 1%, and many others. Her nonfiction work appears in Hobby Farms Magazine, Bloom Magazine, and IU Alumni Magazine, among others. She is also the author of four nonfiction books, including Plan Bee: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Hardest-Working Creatures on the Planet.
Bruce is a long-time resident of Bloomington and a graduate of Indiana University. In addition to writing, he paints, draws, cooks, sings and plays guitar and flute. He and his wife, Ann, love to travel and call San Miguel de Allende in Mexico their second home.
November 3, 2024
4-5:30pm
The Juniper Art Gallery and Cafe
615 W. Kirkwood Avenue
A special Pop-up Chitlin Circuit
Facilitated by Indiana State Poet Laureate Curtis Crisler
Featuring poets Ross Gay, Hiromi Yoshida, Curtis Crisler
Open mic to follow
Sponsored in part by the Writers Guild at Bloomington, Indiana Arts Commission, Bloomington Arts Commission, and the Bloomington Urban Enterprise Association
THURSDAY, NOV 14 6pm EST
Backspace Gallery inside Bonne Fête
112 West 6th Street on the square in Bloomington IN
The Indiana Chitlin Circuit is based on the historical Chitlin Circuit that sprouted during the period of Jim Crow segregation. African American performers weren’t necessarily allowed to share a stage with white performers. A network of live entertainment venues in the US emerged that catered to black audiences and black entertainers.
CURTIS L. CRISLER was born and raised in Gary, Indiana. His book Doing Drive-Bys on How to Love in the Midwest won the C&R Press Award for poetry. His other books include (with Kevin McKelvey) Indiana Nocturnes: Our Rural and Urban Patchwork; THe GReY aLBuM [PoeMS], a Steel Toe Books open reading period selection; Don’t Moan So Much (Stevie): A Poetry Musiquarium; “This” Ameri-can-ah; and Pulling Scabs, nominated for Pushcart Prize. Crisler is Professor of English at Purdue University Fort Wayne. He is the current Indiana State Poet Laureate.
Author of one full-length poetry collection and four poetry chapbooks, HIROMI YOSHIDA is a finalist for the New Women’s Voices Poetry Prize, and a semifinalist for the Gerald Cable Book Award. While serving as a poetry reader for Flying Island Journal, and as secretary of the Writers Guild at Bloomington, she coordinates the Guild’s Last Sunday Poetry reading series.
ROSS GAY is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding, winner of the PEN American Literary Jean Stein Award; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. In addition to his poetry, Ross has released three collections of essays—The Book of Delights was released in 2019 and was a New York Times bestseller; Inciting Joy was released in 2022, and his newest collection, The Book of (More) Delights was released in September of 2023.