A Cozy and Fantastical Experience at Proof: a Midwest Lit Fest

Proof, a Midwest Lit Fest, took place on October 3, primarily at the Harrison Center Museum in north central Indianapolis. It sprawled across the street to the Indiana Humanities building and down 16th Street to Herron High School, and even to Tailwind Cafe down the street from there. This was Proof’s third year and I was ecstatic to finally be physically capable of attending.

Can we pause for a minute and talk about the adorable Proof logo with all its proofreading marks? I would have used a deletion swirl on the space between “mid” and “west,” but that’s only because I overuse it.

Selfie with the Proof logo

My friend Carolyn and I took off from Seymour at 8 a.m., found parking along the surrounding residential roads, and checked in by 9:30. We explored the book shop booths set up in the Harrison Center gymnasium and Carolyn found a copy of Babel by R. F. Kuang for $10 – she’d been searching for months for any copy under $40.

I stopped by the Indy Reads booth and learned how they fund tuition-free classes for Indianapolis. Here’s there upcoming calendar:

Indy Reads' October Event Calendar

Also in attendance was The Ray Bradbury Center, which I look forward to learning more about in the future.

Carolyn attended the Harrison Gallery panel with Maurice Broaddus and Januarie York, Indianapolis Poet Laureate. I struggled to choose between that one, “Using Research to Write the Self” with Natalie Lima, and the Speck Gallery panel with Jenna Voris and Maire Roche. I’d seen Bromantasy (by Maire Roche on some cozy fantasy lists, so I went for that one. Unfortunately, she could not attend, but Voris was a passionate and invigorating speaker.

She spoke about growing up in the Indianapolis area, the influence of musicals on her writing, and the evolving nature of queer literature. She asserted that the “bury your gays” trope, which has become infamous in recent years, is only abused by non-queer writers intending to scapegoat the characters for plot reasons. She dreams of a day when queer characters can fill any and all roles in a story. She gave out a copy of her upcoming fantasy novel, Into the Burning Deep, to one of the attendees.

Proof's own Katie Goodrich (left) interviews Jenna Voris (right).

I was dragging from the early morning (combined with Seymour’s Oktoberfest the night before), so Carolyn and I headed over to Tailwind Café. I got a wonderful hazelnut mocha latte and the "Soft Landing" grilled cheese sandwich, which I’ve been having dreams about ever since. I shopped their library of borrowable books, but knew I’d have trouble returning them and resisted temptation.

I stuck around for the poetry workshop with Quartez Harris. He read from his wife’s book, Run it Back by Kortney Morrow. She’s a fellow Courtney/Kortney who goes by Coco/Koko! We wrote lines about our childhood and overlapped them into poems in small groups.

My contribution to a collaborative poetry exercise during Quartez Harris's poetry workshop

The workshop setup included a banner for Black Worldschoolers, a bookmobile specializing in black literature. The bookmobile was in attendance, too!

Tailwind Café was next to Semantics Paper Goods, where I fell in love with Hobonichi Techo planner far out of my price range. They had exclusive imported products and stickers galore. Very cool!

Carolyn and I went over to Herron High School for the local author fair, where I was psyched to meet cozy paranormal author K. R. S. McEntire and cozy fantasy author Kristina W. Kelly. I got a set of bookmarks and tin of tea with my purchase of my Tea Tale and Tavern Tale set! I was particularly excited about her collection of sci-fi and fantasy poetry alongside her own photography, Imaginari. This will be a great reference for a project I have in the works….

My complete book haul from Proof: Wild that We're Alive by Lauren Haldeman; Imaginari, The Lady's Crownbearer, Tavern Tale, and Tea Tale by Kristina W. Kelly; and That Girl Who Ran Off and Kissed a Vampire by K.R.S. McEntire

Kristina W. Kelly, cozy fantasy author

Carolyn and I next attended Literary Comics with Lauren Haldeman and the Indiana Humanities building. Haldeman emphasized the accessibility of literary comics and of art in general – how even if your technique isn’t the best, a consistent style counts for a lot. She had us illustrate Kobayashi Issa haiku. I’m kind of proud of this one.

Goes out, comes back - the love life of a cat" - a haiku by Kobayashi Issa, illustrated oversimply primarily via ears and tail. The model is Sophie, our grumpy long fur.

All in all, Proof was incredibly well staffed and organized. Despite its spread across multiple buildings and locations, we had no trouble finding anything. We met some incredible people, learned some very useful things, and felt inspired. I can’t wait to attend again next year.