Author to headline 'Writers in Rhythm'

IU's master of fine arts creative writing program will hold its first annual "Writers in Rhythm: Poetry & Prose at the Waldron" event at 8 p.m. Friday. The four-evening series, hosted by the John Waldron Arts Center, is designed to bring interactive and diverse writers to Bloomington for an audience of students and community members, according to a press release. The event is free and open to the public.\n"The event is bringing world-class authors to our community," said Bloomington Area Arts Council Performance and Events Director Jocelyn Robertson. "I think it's always interesting to go and hear a writer read their own work. It brings to life the work more than just reading it."\nThis first event, hosted by IU Creative Writing Director Catherine Bowman, will feature author Charles Baxter, who was recognized as a 2000 National Book Award finalist for his novel "The Feast of Love." Baxter is also the author of three other novels, one novella and several short stories. Currently, there is no itinerary indicating what he will read at the event. The authors choose works that are published and unpublished, Robertson said. \nRyan Bruce, station manager at WFHB, which is helping sponsor the evening, hopes the event will unite students from IU and people from the Bloomington community.\n"We're trying to take this out of the confining element of campus," Bruce said. "We want students and community members to come together for this. We're really just providing the promotion and support so we can get a better audience there."\nThe involvement between community members and students is just one of the things that the council and its sponsors are trying to accomplish with the event. Robertson said the event will also feature a DJ and local musicians to provide musical interludes. \n"We wanted to make it more of an evening and more of an event," Robertson said. "Since we're an arts venue, we like the idea of collaborating between art forms. We're bringing a lot of creative people together and seeing how it all meshes." \nBruce said "Writers in Rhythm" can also serve as an outlet for writers and a promotion platform for similar events.\n"We'd like to see more of this occur," Bruce said, "especially between a community organization and the school."\nOther "Writers in Rhythm" events featured throughout the semester include Michael Martone on Oct. 3, Mary Gaitskill on Oct. 18 and Major Jackson on Nov. 16. For more information about these events, visit www.artlives.org.