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Saturday Oct. 11, 2025
Local Writers Morning Mixer, supported by Butler MFA
Indiana Humanities 1500 N Delaware St., IndianapolisAre you a local writer? Meet up with other writers over a light breakfast of coffee and doughnuts. Share your work, make new friends, and help build literary connections in...
Playing with Words (Beyond Scrabble)
City Gallery 1505 N. Delaware St., IndianapolisThe City Gallery will include a free-to-borrow-and-play library of literary- and word-focused board and card games. Not familiar with these? Lou Harry, game concierge of the weekly Game Night Social at...
Letters to Dead Authors
Loudmouth Books 212 E 16th St., IndianapolisEver wish you had the opportunity to talk with literary legends no longer with us? Stop by Loudmouth Books during Proof to participate in a Letters to Dead Authors activity,...
Found Poetry and Collage
Lawn at Harrison Center 1505 N. Delaware St., IndianapolisUnleash your imagination and create your own found poetry out of magazines, letters, photographs, newspapers, markers, stickers, and more at this hands-on station!
A Midwest Book Fair
Gym at Harrison Center 1505 N. Delaware St., IndianapolisBookstores The Book Fairy Each Other’s Books Golden Hour Books Indy Reads Irvington Vinyl and Books Kids Ink Children’s Bookstore Loudmouth Books Tomorrow Bookstore Ujamaa Community Bookstore Literary organizations Booth...
Midwestern Memoir
Speck Gallery 1505 N. Delaware St., IndianapolisJill Christman is the author of If This Were Fiction: A Love Story in Essays, two memoirs (Darkroom: A Family Exposure and Borrowed Babies: Apprenticing for Motherhood), and essays in...
The Literary Social Life: A History of the Indianapolis Woman’s Club
Indianapolis PropylaeumLearn about the unique history of the Indianapolis Propylaeum and the Indianapolis Woman’s Club, founded in 1875. The purpose of the Indianapolis Woman’s Club was, and remains, the exchange of...
Cracks in the Concrete: Documentary Poetics in the Face of Injustice with Teresa Dzieglewicz
Underground at the Harrison Center 1505 N. Delaware, IndianapolisIn this generative workshop, we'll explore the ways that documentary poetics can be used to crack open, broaden, or crumble official narratives—especially in situations of injustice. When systems and institutions...
Poetry reading with MARS. Marshall, Too Black, and Sylvia Thomas
Harrison Gallery 1505 N Delaware St, IndianapolisMARS. Marshall is a writer and cultural organizer born and raised in Detroit. Their work has been published in Obsidian Literature & Arts for the African Diaspora, Michigan Quarterly Review:...
Magical Realism as a Vessel for Marginalized Voices
Indiana Humanities 1500 N Delaware St., IndianapolisMagical Realism—a genre often associated with Latin American literature that combines the magical with the mundane—has been leveraged to write about sociopolitical topics for decades. From authors like Gabriel Garcia...
Paws to Read
Lawn at Harrison Center 1505 N. Delaware St., IndianapolisYounger readers (and attendees of all ages) are invited to practice their reading skills with canine companions on the lawn at the Harrison Center. Paws to Read volunteers and their...
The Craft of Crime Writing
Speck Gallery 1505 N. Delaware St., IndianapolisJoin a stellar panel of award-winning Midwestern crime writers for a conversation on the craft of writing a good mystery, moderated by Shamus Award-winning author James D.F. Hannah. About the...
Literary Landscapes of the Midwest
Indianapolis PropylaeumThis panel will feature a conversation about Midwestern literature that travels widely through time and space—beginning with hyperlocal experience and building toward a larger mosaic of the diverse stories we...
Poetry reading with Rosalie Moffett, Kristine Esser Slentz, and Teresa Dzieglewicz
Harrison Gallery 1505 N Delaware St, IndianapolisRosalie Moffett is the author of Making a Living (Milkweed, 2025), Nervous System (Ecco, 2019), which was chosen by Monica Youn for the National Poetry Series Prize and listed by...
Mapping Memories: A Family Write-in
Underground at the Harrison Center 1505 N. Delaware, IndianapolisJoin author Katherine Higgs-Coulthard for this fun writing session for the whole family. Families will collaborate to write a story about a specific experience using guided prompts, including making neighborhood...
Storytime with Janna Matthies
Lawn at Harrison Center 1505 N. Delaware St., IndianapolisAbout the Author Janna Matthies’s early years consisted of inventing stories on her cassette recorder, practicing piano and violin (preferably by moonlight), and searching the garden for additions to her...
Real Life, Reimagined Workshop
Indiana Humanities 1500 N Delaware St., IndianapolisSupported by: hello & handshake Conversations, place details, characteristics, moments we can't forget: these real-life happenings are all fodder for fiction. Join us to boldly reimagine the real as its...
Zine Making Workshop
Indianapolis PropylaeumDuring this workshop, children are invited to engage in storytelling and creative expression by reading Listen to Our Future: Toy Drive, discussing key themes and character actions, and creating their...
Silent Book Club Indy Meetup
Foundry Provisions 236 E 16th St, IndianapolisNeed a break from the festival bustle? Or maybe you’ve purchased a book you can’t wait to crack open? Silent Book Club Indy offers introverts and extroverts alike a space...
Censorship: A Conversation on Voice, Artistic Risk and Imagination
Speck Gallery 1505 N. Delaware St., IndianapolisArtists have always pushed boundaries—only to face backlash, bans, or erasure. From books and films to music and visual art, censorship continues to shape what stories get told and who gets...
The Legacies of Booth Tarkington
Indianapolis PropylaeumBooth Tarkington is one of just four authors to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction twice, putting him in a category with William Faulkner, John Updike, and Colson Whitehead. However,...
Midwest Goodbyes: Poets on Loss
Harrison Gallery 1505 N Delaware St, IndianapolisMary Ardery is the author of the poetry collection Level Watch (June Road Press, 2025). Her poems appear in Beloit Poetry Journal, Best New Poets, Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, RHINO,...
“AYE! Slow down for a minute,” or your nervous system is safe, here
Underground at the Harrison Center 1505 N. Delaware, IndianapolisThích Thiên Ân, American teacher and Zen Buddhist Monk, once told us to “let the mind flow like water. Face life with a calm and quiet mind and everything in...
Storytime with Annie Sullivan
Lawn at Harrison Center 1505 N. Delaware St., IndianapolisAbout the Author Annie Sullivan is the author of three young adult fantasy novels (A Touch of Gold, A Curse of Gold, and Tiger Queen) published by an imprint of...
How We Show Up: Building Literary Communities
Speck Gallery 1505 N. Delaware St., IndianapolisHow can we build and sustain communities that honor the art of storytelling? Whether through art, activism, mutual aid, or shared space, people find ways to connect, resist isolation, and...
The Responsibilities of Editors
Indianapolis PropylaeumWhat is the role of an editor during a time of increasing censorship? This panel will focus squarely on the idea of an editor's role/responsibility and how editors are meeting...
A Haiku Workshop
Indiana Humanities 1500 N Delaware St., IndianapolisA haiku workshop with David Hoppe In addition to reading from his new collection of contemporary American haiku (Snapshot Lightning), author David Hoppe will also encourage participants to write their...
Unpacking Publishing: Approaches to Getting Your Book Published presented by Tomorrow Bookstore
Harrison Gallery 1505 N Delaware St, IndianapolisBook publishing is an industry that has stood the test of time over hundreds of years—but with new technologies, confusing business models, and various stakeholders, it can be a complex process...
How did that get on stage?: The evolution of The Egg
Underground at the Harrison Center 1505 N. Delaware, IndianapolisA full production of playwright Lou Harry’s hit play from the 2025 Indy Fringe Festival (with original cast members Beverly Roche and Michelle Wafford) will be followed by an interactive...
Conversation with Danez Smith
Speck Gallery 1505 N. Delaware St., IndianapolisAbout the Author Danez Smith is the author of four collections including Don’t Call Us Dead, Homie, and most recently Bluff, a finalist for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry....
Open Mic Hosted by Eric Saunders of Tea’s Me Open Mic
Rooftop at Harrison Center 1505 N. Delaware St., IndianapolisAs the sun sets over Indianapolis, close out your day at Proof with a rooftop open mic. Share a piece you’ve been working on or new writing from the day....