David Dodd Lee’s forthcoming book of poems, The Nervous Filaments (2010, Four Way Books), is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com. Lee teaches at Indiana University South Bend.

Other books of poetry by Lee: Downsides of Fish Culture (1997), Arrow Pointing North (2002), Abrupt Rural (2004).

Kelcey Parker

Kelcey Parker, assistant professor of English at IU South Bend, has been recognized as Artist of the Month for November 2009 at Image Journal.

Frances Hwang at IU South Bend

Frances Hwang, author of Transparency will be reading at IU South bend. Her story collection, Transparency (Back Bay Books/Little, Brown & Company, 2007), received the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction and a PEN/Beyond Margins Award. Hwang teaches at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana.

Location: IU South Bend on the 3^rd floor “Bridge” of Wiekamp Hall.

When: Monday, Nov. 23, at 7:30 p.m.

*This event is free and open to the public. There will be light refreshments and a book-signing.

“All the grown-ups burst out laughing, and then my aunt turned to look at me. ‘So you think I’m not as pretty?’ she said. My fingers trailed along the sofa as I moved away from her. ‘You think your mom is prettier than me, hey?’ All at once, she lunged, squeezing me tight. When she suctioned my face with kisses, I could feel the hot steam of her emotion. She was a tyrant in that way, her passions swirled messily together, making me afraid. To love and to hate was the same, and even the dog was scared of her.”

–From Transparency “Giving a Clock”

When I'm Alone

I am

Surrounded

By sharp objects

I am alone

I struggle

For comfort

Should I play

A game

Or read

Maybe lie down

Or should I dig

Through the old

To find gold

I want

Invisible hammers

To strike strings

And save me

From this silence

I want to live

In a microcosmic

Village

With polar bear

And Penguins

And baby tiger cubs

And wolf pups

I want all

Of the animals

If I cannot

Have them

I will

Create them

In my mind

And I will

Dream of a garden

And surround

Myself

With memories

Materia

Magnetite

Sleeping Bear

When the storm rolls in,

I move quickly

Over jagged rocks and sand.

Across the great wild back

Of the sleeping bear.

I follow tracks and shapes in clouds.

I walk under a canopy-sky

Of rain and insects.

In the ghost tree valley;

Shadows climb in the distance.

There are two ways to travel:

In the darkness,

And in the light.

And I chase patches of sky

On a stormy sleeping bear night.