Upcoming Events
2022
Book Signing (Poetry and travel memoir!)
August 6th, 10 AM – 5 PM
Green Door Books
325 Main St, Hobart, IN
Featured Poet
August 4th, 7-8 PM
Poetry on Brick Street
Sullivan Munce Culture Center
225 W. Hawthorne St., Zionsville, IN
*Signing to follow!
Storyteller
Listen to Your Mother
Saturday, April 30th, 7 PM
The Hoosier Theater, Whiting, IN
“Listen To Your Mother” will be performed at 7 p.m. April 30 at Hoosier Theatre, 1335 119th St., Whiting. Tickets range from $20 to $40. Open to ages 12 and older. VIP tickets are $40 and include a hot and cold tea and treat bar and special seating. Cost is $20 for general admission; $25 for celebrity circle seats; and $30 for tickets to both shows. For more information on the show, email ltymnwi@gmail.com or call 219-801-2306.
Featured Poet (12:20 – 12:30 PM)
Featured Writer
Dunes Literary Reading Series
Wednesday, March 23rd, 6:30-7:30 PM
IUN, Gary, IN (Rm. TBA)
2021
Solo Female Travel Reading
Sunday, October 17th, 2-3:30 PM
ONE BEST LIFE AT TINKER’S ATTIC, 2513 Highway Ave, Highland, IN
*Reading and signing
*Travel-themed food available for purchase
Featured Writer, Writing Out Loud, Michigan City, IN
Saturday, September 25th
Turning 50 on El Camino de Santiago: A Solo Woman’s Travel Adventure Release Party
Thursday, September 23rd, 7-8 PM
MILES BOOKS, 2819 Jewett Ave, Highland, IN
*Reading and signing
*Will be held outside
The following creative writing workshops will be hosted by the East Chicago Public Library and held on Zoom from 10 AM – 1 PM:
Saturday, January 30th: Novel Writing
Saturday, February 13th: Poetry Writing
Saturday, February 27th: Short Story Writing
Workshops are free and open to teenagers and adults of all experience levels.
2020
2020 Gathering of Writers, September 24th – 28th
“An Intersection of Art & Activism: The Docupoem” Workshop, F-9/25, 9 – 10:15 AM
Weight of Silence Reading and Signing
Thursday, September 10th, 7 PM
Green Door
220 Main Street
Hobart, IN
Event will be outside, and masks are required. Thanks for understanding!
2020 Gathering of Writers, September 24th – 28th
“An Intersection of Art & Activism: The Docupoem” workshop
2019
Thursday, December 19th, 3 – 5 PM
Featured Poet
Dirty Birds: These are Their Words Launch Party
Bloomington, IN
Thursday, November 14th, 6:30 PM
Weight of Silence Reading
Studio 659
1413 119th St, Whiting, IN
Saturday, November 9th, 11:30 AM – 2 PM
Central Library
40 E St. Clair Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204
*Weight of Silenceand If We Were Birds copies will be available for signing
Saturday, October 19th, 10 AM – 1 PM
“How to Write a Novel: Kickstarter Workshop”
East Chicago Public Library
2401 E. Columbus Drive
East Chicago, IN
(Please contact Library for additional information)
Weight of Silence Launch Party – Illinois
Saturday, October 12th
Haitian American Museum of Chicago
4654 N Racine Ave.
Chicago, IL
2-3:30 PM
Launch party will include a reading, signing, and Haitian refreshments.
Weight of Silence Launch Party – Indiana
Saturday, September 28th
Paul Henry’s Art Gallery
416 Sibley Street
Hammond, IN
2-4 PM
Launch party will include a reading, signing, and Haitian refreshments.
Weight of Silence Release
Tuesday, September 24th
Weight of Silence, a full-length poetry collection being released by Wordpool Press (Bloomington), examines the tragic history, current sociopolitical circumstances, and natural and manmade disasters of Haiti and resilience of its people. Silence is explored in myriad ways throughout the work, which contains narrative, persona, prose, and docupoetry. One hundred percent of my proceeds as poet will be donated to not-for-profit organization, Haitian Connection.
Additional publishing information TBA.
Elementary, My Dear Writer: Workshop
Thursday, May 23
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Lake County Public Library
Merrillville
Meeting Room B
In this beginners workshop, we will investigate mystery novel sub-genre trends, write from prompts, and solve the puzzle of how to thicken plot. Please bring your favorite writing gadgets.
What has unraveled in the world of mystery novel writing since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle penned Sherlock? In this introductory-level workshop, we will investigate mystery novel sub-genre trends (cozy, thriller, traditional detective, etc.) today, write from prompts relating to main types, and solve the puzzle of how to thicken plot. A list of resources for further sleuthing will be provided. Please bring your favorite writing gadgets.
(Deerstalker cap optional.)
Register here: http://www.lcplin.org/events
First Friday Readings
POETRY READING
Tasha Bushnell &
Janine Harrison
Friday, March 1, 2019
7:30 p.m.
Three Rivers Food Co-op and Natural Grocery
1612 Sherman Blvd.
Fort Wayne, Indiana



Art of Resistance and Resilience in NW Indiana
A 21st-century Urban Colony’
My poetry chapbook, If We Were Birds, will be included in this traveling exhibit:
Opening: March 9, 6pm-10pm
URI-EICHEN Gallery 2101 S Halsted Chicago IL 60608 | info@URI-EICHEN.com
Over the past few years, NW Indiana has been organizing for economic, social and environmental justice and against racist neocolonial policies. As Chicago pushes its own strategic gentrification, NW Indiana has been subordinated to its needs and interests, a 21st-century urban colony. The People have resisted! Resisted deportations from Gary airport (deportations for the entire Chicago region), Private prison construction for immigrant detention, Police repression against our black, brown and poor communities, Mass poisoning and gentrification of our economically oppressed Region, and Toxic environmental policies throughout NW Indiana.
Community artists are documenting these struggles and share the art of resistance at this exhibit. From protest signs to posters, from poetry to prose, from murals to photographs, this exhibit will offer testimony from activists and residents, stories and strategies, comedies and tragedies, along with a fierce commitment to battle for just equitable sustainable and livable communities.
Paul Henry’s Art Gallery in Hammond
Exhibit Opening: May 5th, 2018
2017
November 18, 2017 – Featured poet at “Volumes and Broadsheet present Janine Harrison and Ryan Kenealy,” from 8-9 PM, Volumes, Bookcafe, 1474 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL
November 3, 2017 – Presenting “Reaching Out: Organizations and Institutions Using Literary Arts as Outreach with Women and Girls” panel with Karen Shubert, Laura Madeline Wiseman, and Colleen Wells at the C.D. Wright Women Writers Conference, Conway, AR
October 28, 2017 – Presenting “Weaving Writers, Weaving Words: A Collaborative Braided Essay Workshop” with Laura Madeline Wiseman and Colleen Wells at the Steel Pen Creative Writers’ Conference, Fair Oaks, IN
October 14, 2017 – Hosting poets at Festival of the Trail, on Jewett Avenue between Kennedy Avenue and 4th Street, Highland, IN 12-12:30 and 1:30-2 PM
October 9 – 30, 2017 – Teaching “Memoir 101” workshop, once a week for four weeks, at Chicago Writers Studio. For more information, please see: https://www.chicagowritersstudio.com/memoir101/
September 15, 2017, 8-10 PM – Hosting a poetry reading featuring Northwest Indiana poets at Tinkers Attic, Highland, IN
August 5, 2017, 7-10 PM – Reading at the Underground Lit Fest’s “Speakeasy @ Art Space” event, Michigan City, IN For further info., please see: http://theliteraryunderground.org/litfest/
Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 7 – 8:30 PM –
2017 IWC Eat & Exchange Series/Session I:
Reframing Experience in Poetry and Prose: Acts of Reclaiming and Resistance
Sip Coffeehouse and Artisanal Café, 2815 Jewett Avenue, Highland, IN
“Weaving Words: A Braided Essay Workshop,” which will be presented at the Steel Pen Creative Writers’ Conference, was born of a collaborative project in which three writers considered the following questions: How does perspective affect personal power and voice? How can reframing experience in writing serve as an act of resistance? How can it allow readers to see subjects through “new eyes”? Please join “Weaving Words” presenter and Highland Poet Laureate Janine Harrison for a discussion in which we define “reframing experience” and examine its applications in poetry and prose writing.
July 15, 2017, 7 PM – Reading from If We Were Birds at the Locofo Chaps Reading, Myopic Books, 1564 North Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago
July 11 – 12, 2017 – Leading a two-day poetry workshop for Haitian Connection in Jeremie, Haiti
July 4, 2017, 12:30 PM – Reading of Independence Day poetry as part of Fourth of July Highland Festival, Main Square Park, Highland, IN


On October 15th, from 1-2 PM, Janine Harrison is honored to be joining Highland, Indiana Poet Laureate Lily Rex to read poetry at the town’s “Festival of the Trail.” My reading will focus on Jeremie, Haiti, as it relates to the recent devastation caused by Hurricane Matthew. For additional information about the event, please see: https://www.facebook.com/events/1001899376613787/
2 thoughts on “Upcoming Events”
megdemakas
I’m excited to see so many literary event going on here! Good creativity and community impact! Thanks for including me in the realm and I will participate in some! I do have a poetry book published…”Hot Potato Poetry” on Amazon.com. Maybe the woman poet event.
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Visionariekind
wonderful I attended the Gary Poetry Project…
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