So What’s with the “Blue Light”?

Indiana Review will have its Second Annual Blue Light Reading this Friday, March 30^th at 8pm at the Bloomington Playwrights Project. Check out Associate Editor Jennifer Luebber’s post “Announcing Indiana Review’s 2nd Annual Blue Light Reading” for more information.

The reading is sure to be intellectually AND emotionally stimulating (and, of course, fun!), but where the heck did the name come from? It turns out that the answer is very simple and has nothing to do with Kmart’s blue light specials: there’s a blue light in the Indiana Review office.

“Challenged”

Even if you’re familiar with IR, chances are you may have never visited the actual office. We are located on the 4^th floor, which contains two long hallways extending in opposite directions. Our lovely office is located at the very end of one of these very long hallways. Now, to get to the 4^th floor, you can choose from three different staircases (the major calf-burning exercise of my day) or you can take the elevator. One staircase puts you right outside our door, while another puts you on the other far end of the floor. The remaining staircase and elevator get you to the exact middle. So imagine that you’ve just made this trek up to the 4^th floor and now you need to walk all the way down the hallway. The problem is, because there are several editors and interns coming and going according to individual class schedules, our office hours are not consistent from day to day, let alone from semester to semester. So there’s a chance that you walk all the way down the hall and the office is closed. Disappointment galore!

As a solution, we have a small desk lamp, with a bright blue light that shines down the hall. Think about it as a beacon of hope to help people find us, or a neon “OPEN” sign. Over the years, as a result of literary types working in close quarters with each other, the lamp has become a true member of the magazine. In honor of the Second Annual Blue Light Reading, I delved into the IR archives to bring you the best and the brightest of our blue light’s moments.