touch is not reversible. one
cannot be un-touched. are you
uncomfortable? good. then it’s begun.

Marty McConnell

That was poet Marty McConnell performing “The World’s Guide to Beginning,” and informing the rapt crowd of exactly what was happening to them. McConnell, along with writers Jamaal May and L. Annette Binder, traveled to Bloomington to perform at Indiana Review‘s third annual Blue Light Reading and gave our community a weekend to remember.

Read more after the jump!

Annette Binder read “Lay My Head,” a riveting and subtle tale which she said was rejected by literary journals 77 times before it was accepted. The story appears in her first collection, Rise, winner of the 2011 Mary McCarthy Prize.

L. Annette Binder

Jamaal May’s powerful set included poems from his collection Hum, forthcoming from Alice James Books. Watch the contrapuntal “I Do Have A Seam” here.

Jamaal May

McConnell further collapsed any perceived distance between “page” and “stage” poems, performing and reading works from her new book, wine for a shotgun.

The readers during the Q&A

We want to send a million thank you’s again to our featured readers, to Canvas and Union Board, to CAHI, and the Neal Marshall Black Culture Center for all of their support. A wonderful weekend that would never have been possible without you!

See you next year!