Contemporary authors present work at Waldron Arts Center

Written words will come alive at 8 p.m. today at the John Waldron Arts Center auditorium as published fiction writer and poet John Keene will read with poet Evie Shockley as part of the “Writers at the Waldron” series. The event is presented by IU’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program. \nIU professor, event host and fellow poet Ross Gay calls the event a “mixed-genre reading” in which both short fiction and poetry will be read.\nGay describes Keene and Shockley as “young writers with lots of energy.” \n“John and Evie are two people who are at the vanguard of contemporary American and African-American literature,” said Gay, who has read at the University of Notre Dame with Keene and attended Shockley’s readings in the past. He describe Keene’s work as “beautiful, experimental prose” with a “nuanced way of relating personal history that doesn’t feel self-absorbed.”\nKeene, an associate professor at Northwestern University, published his first novel, “Annotations,” in 1995 and is currently at work on another novel, a book of short stories and a book of poetry. \n“I write slowly,” Keene said, but he insisted that the projects will be released “sooner rather than later.”\nKeene plans to read one of his short stories that examines what he describes as the “analytical aspects” of literature.\n“One of the things I’ve been particularly interested in with contemporary literature is its critical function,” Keene said. \nOne of his goals as an artist is to “represent what hasn’t been represented before in ways it hasn’t been done before.”\nShockley has two published books of poetry and is a professor at Rutgers University. Gay said he believes Shockley’s poetry is the “best experimental work” around and has a strong narrative. \n“She has a way of interpreting contemporary and historical events such that we understand them completely differently,” Gay said.\nToday’s reading is the second major reading that will occur at the Waldron this semester. The first was by poet Paul Muldoon on Jan. 15. \nEvent organizer and graduate student Courtney Dorroll said she hopes today’s reading brings as many people to the Waldron as Muldoon’s, which filled the venue’s 160 seats and left many more people standing. \n“Variations on Funk,” the third event in the series, will be April 2. Gay described it as a “big, blowout event,” where four different poets will give readings.\nGay said he believes readings like these are crucial to the art of poetry. He thinks that good readers like Keene and Shockley can reach a much wider audience with big public events than through releasing books of their work. \n“People imagine poetry as something they don’t understand,” Gay said. He said many people get turned off from the art by less interesting poetry. \nHe hopes readings like the spring series at the Waldron will get more people interested in poetry, and insists that events like these present very moving work, not “dried-up, academic bullshit.”