Indiana University Northwest English Department

03/19/2026

Next week, on the 25th, come to a Dunes Literary Series Zoom reading given by Michael Parker and Robyn Ryle!

02/18/2026

Students from the English Dept are present at this year's Regionals at the Rotunda, an IU celebration of research and creative work at the Capitol in Indianapolis. Ted Plants, Paige Kasmir, Nate Fortener, & Erin Harrison are sharing a class fiction project, AssIsted Living, a dystopian novel of an AI-run nursing facility. It tries to sort the source of human memory, while asking how a new sense of humanity emerges from the AI "revolution." The Rotunda event runs thru the afternoon of Wed, Feb 18.

02/09/2026

Spirits, IUN's student-managed literary and arts journal, invites your work in creative writing and the visual arts through Fri, March 6! Send your work to our editors at [email protected] . All artists are invited to submit work, both within and outside the IU Northwest community.

We welcome creative writing in fiction (1000-1500 words, but we also invite flash fictions of one page or less), poems, one-act plays, creative nonfiction (autobiographical or journalistic essays), and anything in between. We also welcome visual art works, including photographs, drawings, comics, and other visually defined pieces.

Again, send your work to [email protected] by Fri, March 6. We look forward to reading and viewing your work!

02/05/2026

Our annual translation night is coming up on February 25th for the Dunes Literary Series! This night tends to be a highlight of the season, and this year with Odile Cisneros and Erik Noonan as guests, I'm sure it will be again. The readings come live from IU Indiana University Northwest in Gary through Zoom. 6:30-7:30. Free. Sign up below for the the Zoom link (and no, you won't be put on some. crazy spam list if you sign up for the reading.)

Join the Dunes Literary series as we welcome two writers, Odile Cisneros and Erik Noonan, for our annual Translation Night to read and discuss the ...

11/12/2025

Next week’s Dunes Lit Series reading on Wed, Nov 19, celebrates the launch of two new books.

Kirsti Mackenzie’s “Better to Beg” is a rock and roll novel, the story of the Deserters, a band on tour in a restless America. Mackeznie’s sharp prose takes a range of forms, including microfiction. She lives in northern Ontario, where she is editor-in-chief of Major 7th Magazine.

“The Plan of Chicago” is Barry Pearce’s new collection of short stories that resound in a contemporary Chicago. Pearce won the Nelson Algren Award for Fiction in 2019. He was born near the city’s Midway Airport and currently lives in the Albany Park neighborhood.

Join us next Wed at 6:30 PM to celebrate these outstanding fiction writers’ new work! Click the link below to attend.

Join the Dunes Literary Series for a night of Chicago writers: Barry Pearce and Kirsti MacKenzie read and answer questions. RSVP to be sent the Zoo...

10/13/2025

We are having two poets, Sheila Murphy and Geof Huth, read as part of IU Northwest's Zoom-based reading series, The Dunes Literary Series, this Wednesday evening from 6:30-7:30 (Central). Learn more about the event and sign up for the free link here:

Welcome to another reading in our Dunes Literary Series. We will feature poets Sheila Murphy and Geof Huth who will read and answer questions. RVSP...

10/08/2025

Raíces to Roots- Unpacking Home (World Premiere)
Presented as part of of IU Northwest’s Hispanic Heritage Month programming in partnership with the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance

An arts collective and performance project, Raices to Roots celebrates and examines the Chicago Puerto Rican experience through Afro-Latin dance, spoken word, and music. This free performance is offered in partnership with IU Northwest’s Hispanic Heritage Programming Committee and the Chicago Latino Theatre Alliance. Tickets are free, but registration is recommended.

Title: Raíces to Roots- Unpacking Home (World Premiere)
Written by: Luis Tubens and Maria Luisa Torres
Directed by: Rocky Quiñones

Synopsis (EN)
“Unpacking Home” follows The Poet, a character in search of home, who receives a suitcase from their ancestors filled with items that unlock memories and guide their journey. Dancers embody these memories—giving form to identity, love, struggle, and resilience. From Abuela’s kitchen to the snowy streets of Chicago, and the domino table, each vignette reveals a layer of belonging. The performance culminates in an invitation for the audience to reflect and share, completing the search for home as a collective act of remembrance.

Free

08/13/2025

Some photos from the Humanities Summer Bridge program. Led by History and English professors, the students took a creative writing hike in the Indiana Dunes National Park.

05/21/2025

Check out this story about our very own Dr. Erin Schaefer!

English professor makes self-care a core component of IU Northwest class

05/05/2025

Check out the videos from the previous Dunes Literary Series!

Somewhere southeast of Chicago, and yet miles from Kalamazoo, the Dunes Literary Series invites regional writers to share new work with the Indiana University Northwest community.  Here, writers and listeners can extend their sense of the Gary lyric against the gentle, nearby rumble of I-80/94.  W...

02/16/2025

The Dunes Literary Series at IU Northwest in Gary is featuring a Translation night with Donald Wellman and Lucas Klein this Wednesday night at 6:30 CT. Free for all. Just RSVP below to be sent the link.

The Dunes Literary Series Translation night featuring Donald Wellman and Lucas Klein .

01/17/2025

Join us on Zoom for IUN's Dunes Literary Series to listen to two VISPO poets, Kristine Snodgrass and Nico Vassilakis, read/talk. The reading takes place on Wed, Jan 22, at 6:30 Central. Free. Just sign up below to be sent the Zoom link.