InkTank re-emerges, launching reading series in OTR

It turns out that tech startups aren’t the only people who know how to pivot. When InkTank, a nonprofit focused on literacy development and creative writing shut down in 2011, citing funding issues, its writer’s salon survived and continued to meet, but the occasional readings (and other services) it provided seemed lost. Now, the free, bimonthly InkTank Reading Series promises to change that.

Despite losing its former Main Street location, “we kept talking about doing something, but we didn’t really have a direction or location,” says Seán Dwyer, one of six core members of the group. He helps organize the series and attract the talent: emerging authors from the Midwest.

The InkTank salon paired with 1215 Wine Bar and Coffee Lab in Over-the-Rhine to host the readings, which will feature a published regional author preceded by two emerging, local voices. The first event, which will be held Nov. 27 at 8 p.m., will host Cincinnatian Ian Stelsel, a graduate of the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop and husband of a former salon member. Stelsel plans to read from a collection of short stories set to publish in 2013.

There’s been no trouble attracting authors to read at the gatherings, according to Dwyer. “We’ve got enough authors for about 10 months. We’ve actually stopped asking [for authors to read] because we want to see how [the series] goes and where it goes.”

In the coming months, authors will include Phoebe Reeves, a poet and professor at the University of Cincinnati’s Clermont College; Don Peteroy, a Ph.D. candidate at UC; and Jacinda Townsend, who teaches at Indiana University.

The 1215 venue is open to patrons of all ages. The InkTank Reading Series will feature prose, poetry, creative nonfiction and plays from published authors, as well as book signings and question-and-answer sessions, on the last Tuesday of every other month.

Do Good:
• Ask a question about the series by emailing InkTank.

• Attend the first reading on Nov. 27 at 8 p.m. at 1215 Wine Bar and Coffee Lab.

• Learn more about upcoming, featured authors from INKTank.
 
By Robin Donovan