Events
Graduate Workshop & Craft Talk: Aimée Baker
Monday, April 3rd @ 5pm - 6pm
Aimée Baker is a interdisciplinary writer offering a graduate level workshop/craft talk. Find more about Baker here.
Poetry Reading: Paul Guest, C.T. Salazar, & Amie Whittemore
Monday, April 3rd @ 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Amie Whittemore (she/her) is the author of three poetry collections was the 2020-2021 Poet Laureate of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
C.T. Salazar is a Latinx poet. His debut collection Headless John the Baptist Hitchhiking (Acre Books 2022) was named a 2023 finalist for the Theodore Roethke Memorial Prize.
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Paul Guest is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Because Everything Is Terrible, and a memoir, One More Theory About Happiness.
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Find more about our readers here.
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Musing on the Muse: Adrian Matejka, C.T. Salazar, Amie Whittemore, & Sarah Minor
Tuesday, April 4th 5:30pm - 6:30pm
Artists and writers alike, are often asked what their inspiration for creation stems from, and the answers are often a variation of the following: other artwork, literature, geography, religion, philosophy, cultural background, personal relationship, etc. Sometimes, the inspiration is project specific, but often, the themes bleed throughout a series of works, leaving a kind of fingerprint. How do we determine what is important to write about, and when do we allow ourselves to be satiated by our new understandings after it’s been written?
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Read more information on our panelists here.
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Poetry Reading: Adrian Matejka, Leila Chatti
Tuesday, April 4th 7:00pm - 8:30pm
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Leila Chati is the author of the debut full-length collection Deluge and the chapbooks Figment, The Mothers, Ebb, and Tunsiya/Amrikiya.
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Adrian Matejka is the author of several books of poems, a co-author of a mixed media collection and a graphic novelist.
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Find more about our readers here.
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Graduate Workshop & Craft Talk: Gillian King-Cargile
Wednesday, April 5th, 5:00pm - 6:00pm
Join Gillian, the author of several picture books, middle-grade nonfiction books, essays and short stories in a graduate level workshop/craft talk.
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Find more about our readers here.
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Cross-Genre Reading:
Jane V. Blunschi, Gillian King-Cargile, & Sam Slupski
Wednesday, April 5th @ 6:30pm - 8:00pm
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Jane V. Blunschi is the author of a collection of stories, Understand Me, Sugar. Her forthcoming novella, Mon Dieu, Love, was awarded the 2022 Clay Reynolds Novella Prize and will be released by Texas Review Press in Spring 2023.
Sam Slupski's book of poems and essays, A Sharp Knife Bites the Surface, is forthcoming with Game Over Books in August 2023.
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Gillian King-Cargile has published picture books, middle-grade nonfiction books, and longer work for readers of all ages. Her short stories have appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendencies, Carve Magazine, Everyday Fiction, River Styx, 3 Elements, Hello Horror, and other publications.
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Find more about our readers here.
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Creating a New Narrative: Emma Binder, Sam Slupski, Jane Blunschi, & Paul Guest
Thursday, April 6th @ 5:30pm - 6:30pm
Writers and artists often write from backgrounds that have historically been under or misrepresented, giving a voice to communities that society has silenced and restricted. While the investigation of the personal experience can work to dismantle the structures in place, it can be difficult to write against the universal experience. How do we care for ourselves throughout this work? How do we care for our audience?
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Read more information on our panelists here.
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Cross-Genre Reading: Emma Binder, Aimée Baker, & Sarah Minor
Thursday, April 6th @ 7:00pm - 8:30pm
Emma Binder is a fiction writer and poet and they are currently working on a collection of short stories about queerness, rural life, and survival.
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Sarah Minor is a writer and interdisciplinary artist and the author of Slim Confessions: The Universe as a Spider or Spit, Bright Archive, a collection of visual essays, and the chapbook The Persistence of The Bonyleg: Annotated, selected by Joseph Harrington (Essay Press, 2016).
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Aimée Baker’s first collection of poetry, Doe, was the subject of the documentary She (Birdy & Bean Films) starring Kate Mulgrew, Raven Goodwin, and Coco Jones.
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Find more about our readers here.
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Graduate Workshop & Craft Talk: Leila Chatti
Friday, April 7th @ 5:00pm - 6:00pm
Join Leila Chati, the author of the debut full-length collection Deluge and the chapbooks Figment, The Mothers, Ebb, and Tunsiya/Amrikiya, in a graduate level workshop/craft talk. Find more about Chatti here.
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Open Mic Night
Friday, April 7th @ 6:30pm - 7:30pm
Email whitney.graham@siu.edu before April 7th to join the open mic lineup. All performances are welcome, but there is a maximum 15-minute reading/performing time. Because this event is virtual, participants are asked to prepare their audio/visual features accordingly.
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