Fear not the ladder, the mirror or night-colored cat. Eschew the ramifications of cracks, wayward pennies and spilled seasonings. Whether cursed by a band of passing gypsies or currently abundant with luck and gold, your Friday the 13th for this Spring is guaranteed a good time – if it’s free poetry and a cold beer you happen to be seeking, that is. While this month’s InKY Reading Series transpires – as luck would have it – hand-in-hand with that most famous and unofficial of superstition holidays, poets Adam Day and Brian Barker will hold court at The Bard’s Town with musical guests, open mic and abundantly artistic pub atmosphere regardless of any ill-spent charms.
Currently serving as Writer-in-residence at Earlham College, Kentucky native, Adam Day, is a nationally recognized and awarded poet. With work appearing in such publications as the Boston Review, Guernica, AGNI, The Iowa Review, The Kenyon Review and APR, Day’s poetry has garnered both attention and praise, earning him a 2010 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship for Badger, Apocrypha, as well as a 2011 PEN Emerging Writers Award. Day also exercises his literary chops coordinating The Baltic Writing Residency in Latvia and serving as an editor for both the publication, Memorious, as well as the literary and comics journal, Catch Up.
A sort of literary Jack-of-all-trades, Day’s InKY co-star for the evening, Brian Barker, is the author of two poetry collections, as well as a myriad of other reviews and interviews. His books include The Animal Gospels and The Black Ocean – winner of the Crab Orchard Open Competition. Barker’s work, both poetic and essayed, can be found in the pages of Poetry, Kenyon Review Online, Indiana Review, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly, The Writer’s Chronicle, The Washington Post, The Cincinnati Review, Blackbird and Pleiades. He currently teaches at the University of Colorado where he co-edits in the publication Copper Nickel.
Day and Barker will take the stage starting at 8pm, following the musical stylings of Louisville pop-punk band, Reading Group. Bring along your rabbit’s foot (or a couple if you’re pondering the challenge of open mic), grab a beer and let luck be your literary lady.
The Bard’s Town is located at 1801 Bardstown Road. For more information on The InKY Reading Series and this year’s line-up, visit the website.
Photos: Courtesy of Louisville Literary Arts website www.louisvilleliteraryarts.org