Add Event My Events Log In

Upcoming Events

    We see you appreciate a good vintage. But there comes a time to try something new. Click here to head over to the redesigned Louisville.com. It's where you'll find all of our latest work. And plenty of the good ol' stuff, too, looking better than ever.

    Bit to Do

    Print this page

    What exactly is a “bard?”  The term finds its way into modern speech casually, dropped from time to time in conjunction with poets and playwrights.  William Shakespeare is, of course, affectionately and globally known as “The Bard” (with a capital B), but what – precisely – does this word convey?                    

    According to Dictionary.com a “bard” [bahrd] is:                        Noun

    1. (Formerly) a person who composed and recited epic or heroic poems, often while playing the harp, lyre, or the like.

    2. One of an ancient Celtic order of composers and reciters of poetry.

    3. Any poet.

    4. The Bard, William Shakespeare.

    While I highly doubt anyone featured this Friday will be treating the audience to the dreamy melodies of the harp (too bad), the InKY Reading Series promises indeed to provide listeners with a modern performance of the minstrel show.  Aptly held at The Bard’s Town restaurant, theatre and lounge, writers Kevin Wilson and Catherine Bowman will share their words alongside musician, Calvin Fackler.  Bards in truth, methinks!

    Wilson, a professor of fiction at the University of the South, is the author of the well-awarded collection, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth (Ecco/Harper Perennial 2009), as well as the novel, The Family Fang (Ecco 2011)  A recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo and the KHN Center for the arts, Wilson’s work has appeared in publications such as Ploughshares, Tin House, One Story, Cincinnati Review and in four volumes of the New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best anthology.  Wilson’s writing seamlessly blends the mundane and the fantastic in a clever voice of vibrant prose and sharp humor.

    Sharing the spotlight with Wilson this Friday, is poet and professor, Catherine Bowman.  Currently the Director of the MFA Creative Writing Program at Indiana University, Bowman is the author of four volumes of poetry, The Plath Cabinet (Four Way Books), Notarikon (Four Way Books), Rock Farm (Gibbs Smith), and 1-800-HOT-RIBS (Gibbs Smith).  Bowman’s work has been published in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, the Harvard Review, as well as The Best American Poetry Series.  Her writing has been awarded the Peregrine Smith Poetry Prize, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award for Poetry, the Dobie Paisano Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry and four Yaddo Fellowships.  Bowman is presently the editor of Word of Mouth: Poems Featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered.”      

    In the seven years since its inception, the InKY Reading Series has featured writers and authors from Boston, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Atlanta, Portland, Chicago, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, as well as from every urban and rural region of Kentucky.  The series turns the second Friday of the month into an opportunity for writers to gain fans and for the public to enjoy free erudition (and beer – but that’s extra).  Bring your friends and an appetite for literature; veritable bards shall wax words for thy merrymaking.     

    Schedule
    6:30pm Open mic sign-ups
    7 – 7:30pm Open mic
    7:30 – 8pm Live music
    8pm – 9pm Featured readers

    The Bard’s Town is located at 1801 Bardstown Road

    For more information about the InKY Reading Series visit www.louisvilleliteraryarts.org

    Photo: Courtesy of Kevin Wilson and Catherine Bowman’s respective webpages www.wilsonkevin.com and http://iub.edu

    Erin Day's picture

    About Erin Day

    I'm a Louisville native who transplanted home from Las Vegas recently. Don't ask. In my spare time I read a lot of books and drink gin. My soulmate is my 1994 turquoise Ford Ranger - they never made a finer truck. I still totally believe in the Loch Ness Monster. I just want to write for you.

    More from author:

    Share On:

    Most Read Stories