Poetry Lunch Hours

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Poetry Lunch Hours

The ECCW and MFA program continues our popular poetry book group. Open to all Butler community members, each Lunch Hour will feature discussion of a selected poet’s work. A selection of poems will be emailed in advance of the discussion with RSVP, so no book purchase is necessary. Lunch is also provided with RSVP. Please email Mindy Dunn to RSVP for any of the dates below. All lunch hours meet at 12:30 PM at the ECCW.

  • Friday, January 27 (TBA)
  • Friday, February 17 (TBA)
  • Friday, March 3 (Gabrielle Calvocoressi)
  • Friday, March 31 (TBA)
  • Friday, April 14 (Diane Seuss)

Alumni Book Launch Party: Testify by Douglas Manuel

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Alumni Book Launch Party: Testify by Douglas Manuel

Monday, March 27th, 7:30 pm. 

Join us as we celebrate the first book launch for a beloved poetry alum, Doug Manuel. Doug will be reading selections from his book, Testify, which will be officially released on April 25th. Advance copies of the book will be for sale and signing! You can find a full description of Testify on the Red Hen Press website. Light refreshments will be served.

Writing for Wellness Workshop

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Writing for Wellness Workshop

Monday, February 27th, 7:30 pm.

In the trenches of writing and revising we often take the cathartic nature of writing for granted, but in wellness groups across the city MFAs are igniting the passion for writing. This is your chance to reap the benefits. Three of our most experienced Creative Writing for Wellness facilitators and MFA students, Andrea Boucher, Karin Salisbury, and Maggie Sweeney, will lead us in transformative and rewarding prompts focused on self-care that may just spark your next big project.

Justin Taylor Reading

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Faculty Reading: Justin Taylor

Monday, February 6th, 7:30pm 

In welcome for the spring semester Booth Tarkington Writer-in-Residence, Justin Taylor, will start the series off reading fiction. He is the author of the story collections Flings (HarperCollins, 2014) and Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever (Harper Perennial, 2010), and the novel The Gospel of Anarchy (Harper Perennial, 2011). His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, The New York Times Book Review, and The New Republic. He is the fiction editor for The Literary Review and lives (most of the time) in Portland, Oregon. Findable online at http://www.justindtaylor.net/ and @my19thcentury. Light refreshments will be served.

MFA Family Gather

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The MFA family gathered together to celebrate the marriage of two of their own. MFA alums Chris and Elisabeth Speckman met in the program and for better or worse are forever a part of this Butler MFA family.

“My god, how I love my MFA family!” – Ashley Petry (’16)

Greg O’Neill on Music in Indy

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Greg O’Neill, current Butler MFA candidate in fiction is the program’s resident music scene guy. He knows music: Who to watch and where and with whom (hint: with him, if you’re buying). He shares his thoughts on Indy’s music scene.

11816790_10206773688848183_4431513467142962486_nAs a music fan and musician, Indy has always been good to me. There are venues all over the city for both local and touring acts. Places like the Melody Inn which is next to Butler’s campus and books acts as disparate as Japanese punks Peelander-Z and surf-rock god Dick Dale; shockingly legit jazz clubs like the Chatterbox and the Jazz Kitchen; a trio of clubs in Fountain Square — White Rabbit, Radio, Radio and Hi-fi — specializing in everything from burlesque shows to bearded folkies; not to mention your standard outdoor amphitheaters and sporting arenas (I saw both Taylor Swift and Nine Inch Nails under the Pacers banner at Banker’s Life Fieldhouse).

And because Indy inhabits this weird limbo of sometimes-medium-sometimes-major market, national touring acts like Animal Collective, Kurt Vile or Savages will often play more intimate spaces than up in Chicago. Here’s how close you can get:
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I’m also constantly surprised by all the MCs who just keep spawning in nearby Fountain Square’s hip hop scene, each year culminating in the hip hop block party, Chreece — sold out in its first two years.
I could go on.
And I will.
Only to mention the two stellar record stores in town, Luna Music and Indy CD & Vinyl. They both sell a great selection of old records and host incredible events like in-store performances from artists playing in town.
I like Indy. It’s a tidy little secret with lots of cool people, cheap housing and zero pretense. Find a local and prepare to spend a single digit number of dollars on drinks.