University of Indianapolis Announces 2025-2026 Kellogg Writers Series
The Kellogg Writers Series at the University of Indianapolis announced its 2025-26 season. The series features four critically acclaimed writers from across the country who represent a variety of genres and works.
“What phenomenal writers this season!” said Barney Haney, associate professor of English and chair of the Kellogg Writers Series. “Rippers from top to bottom. I can’t wait for y’all to meet them. Brittany Means is so sharp and funny and deep. Her rigorous debut memoir is gutting yet hopeful—what a big heart, what beautiful soul! Christian Moody’s debut story collection has been a long time coming, and I’m so over the moon excited about it that we are giving away 50 free copies to the first 50 people who come through the door. The stories are wonderfully weird, hilarious, and tight as a drum. You think he’s going on a divergence, you just wait! Kayleb Rae Candrilli’s poems are rural Pennsylvania, fearless queer, and gentle as can be. I simply love them. And two Welsh poets, Christina Thatcher and Abigail Parry, are crossing the pond from The Land of Song to bring us a night of absolute magic. These ladies are crazy fun, and the poems—you’ve got to hear these poems! Horses and insects and magical Wales!”
“We also have big surprises in store, including a very special guest appearance for the first reading and lots of giveaways and sensory experiences. Behind the scenes, I’m working with a big, awesome group of students who are so wildly talented and creative. They are driving this thing, and it’s going to be top-notch crazy cool!”
This year’s series will feature readings from the following writers:
Brittany Means
Memoir Reading
Thursday, September 11, 2025, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. (ET)
UIndy Hall, Schwitzer Student Center
Photo courtesy of the author.
Brittany Means was born dead and then lived in a car and then in a huge black barn out in the cornfields of rural Indiana. Her debut memoir, “Hell If We Don’t Change Our Ways,” earned a Kirkus starred review, an Indiana Author’s Award and was a finalist for the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. Means lives in Albuquerque, where she keeps chickens, does mutual aid and watches many horror movies.
Christian Moody
Fiction Reading
Thursday, November 20, 2025, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. (ET)
UIndy Hall, Schwitzer Student Center
Photo courtesy of the author.
Christian Moody’s debut short story collection, “Lost in the Forest of Mechanical Birds,” won the Dzanc Books Short Story Collection Prize. His stories have been published in Esquire.com, Alaska Quarterly Review, and the Best New American Voices anthology, among others. He holds an MFA from Syracuse University and a PhD from the University of Cincinnati. He has been in residence at Yaddo, Breadloaf, and Sewanee.
Kayleb Rae Candrilli
Poetry Reading
Thursday, February 26, 2026, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. (ET)
UIndy Hall, Schwitzer Student Center
Photo credit: Ryan Collerd, courtesy of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage
Kayleb Rae Candrilli is a 2019 Whiting Award recipient in Poetry and the author of three collections: “Water I Won’t Touch” (2021), “All the Gay Saints” (2020), and “What Runs Over” (2017). They were a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in transgender poetry and have received fellowships from Lambda Literary. Their work has appeared in Poetry, The American Poetry Review, and Boston Review, among other journals.
Christina Thatcher & Abigail Parry
Poetry Reading
Tuesday, April 7, 2026, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. (ET)
UIndy Hall, Schwitzer Student Center
Photo credit (Thatcher): Courtesy of the author.
Photo credit (Parry): Adrian Pope
Christian Thatcher grew up in Pennsylvania and won a Marshall Scholarship to study in the UK, where she earned a PhD from Cardiff University and is now a lecturer. Her three poetry collections with Parthian Books are “More Than You Were,” “How to Carry Fire,” and “Breaking a Mare.” She has read her widely published work internationally in the UK, USA, Canada, and more.
Abigail Parry has won numerous prizes for her poetry, including an Eric Gregory Award. Her first collection, “Jinx” (2018), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Her second collection, “I Think We’re Alone Now” (2023), was a finalist for both the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Wales Book of the Year. Her poems have been set to music and translated into multiple languages.
All readings are free to attend (no advanced registration required) and open to the public! LP credit is available for UIndy students who attend.