Last Sunday Poetry Reading & Open Mic

Sponsored by Indiana Humanities, and Presented by the Writers Guild at Bloomington

featuring

JL Kato

Winner of the 2022 Literary Champion Award

from the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Awards

A Q&A session will be held after the poetry reading instead of open mic.

JL Kato, Indiana’s 2022 Literary Champion, will read from his award-winning book, Shadows Set in Concrete.  The reading will be followed by a Q&A session.

JL Kato was born in Japan and moved to Indiana at age two. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in journalism and worked as a newspaper copy editor for 31 years.

His full-length poetry collection, Shadows Set in Concrete, was selected the 2011 Best Indiana Book of Poetry by the Indiana Center for the Book.

Former president of Etheridge Knight Inc. and Brick Street Poetry — organizations that sponsor literary events, readings, contests and publications — Kato was also a co-founder and curator of Poetry in Free Motion, a project that combined the creative sparks of quilters and poets.

As a member of the Indiana Writers Center, he was a participant, then moderator, of the Poetry Salon, which encouraged poets to develop their writing and critiquing skills. He also served for six years as poetry editor of Flying Island. Kato volunteers as a judge in the annual writing contest for incarcerated persons sponsored by the Woman’s Press Club of Indiana.