Artist and poet Fred Schmalz will launch his debut collection, “Action in the Orchards,” at the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana at 7 p.m. on Friday, June 21. This special event includes readings by Schmalz and John Thurgood.
Fred Schmalz, the author of “Action in the Orchards” (Nightboat Books), is an artist and poet whose recent writing focuses on textual response to encounters with dance, music, and visual art. In 2018, he was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic as poet-in-residence for the FluxConcert in its year-long Fluxus Festival. His field guide “Claes Oldenburg’s Festival of Living Objects” was published in conjunction with a series of gallery walks by the Walker Art Center in 2013. His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in a variety of publications including Poetry, Spinning Jenny, Conduit, jubilat, and A Public Space. He makes art in the collaborative Balas & Wax.
John Thurgood is a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His work has appeared in a variety of magazines, such as Monkeybicycle, Story|Houston and . His reviews can be found at Electric Literature, Necessary Fiction and Modern Fix, among other venues. He is a monthly contributor to News 4U, and you can find links to his writing and films at
johnthurgood.com.
