Local professor, poet Heithaus to kick off Kelly Writers Series

In the midst of pandemic lockdowns in the spring of 2020, local poet Joe Heithaus opens a shipment of his latest books “Library of My Hands” on his front porch. Heithaus will finally have a chance to share his work publicly at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 15 in DePauw University Thompson Recital Hall.

Courtesy photo

Professor Joe Heithaus will be reading as part of the James and Marilou Kelly Writers Series at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 15 in Thompson Recital Center, Green Center for the Performing Arts. All are welcome, but please wear a mask.

The local poet had been revising and rethinking his poetry collection “Library of My Hands” throughout the summer and fall of 2019, probably driving his publisher at Dos Madres Press a little crazy. At one point that fall the publication date was pushed back to February of 2020 to accommodate the last-minute revisions to the manuscript.

Little did anyone know that Februrary 2020 wouldn’t be a particularly good time to launch a book.

At long last, Heithaus will be reading from his book at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Thompson Recital Hall for the first time in front of a live local audience. The book’s cover was designed in collaboration with Jerry Bates and Professor Cindy O’Dell of DePauw’s art department. The hands on the cover are actually Joe’s hands.

The book collects many poems Joe has published in journals over the last 20 years while a professor at DePauw. Each section or “book” collects different kinds of poems. For instance, the section “Birth Atlas,” which opens “Library of My Hands” recounts in different ways the births of his children. “Light Studies” are poems inspired by art.

Heithaus has published one other book of poetry, “Poison Sonnets” (2012). He earned a Ph.D. and an M.F.A. from Indiana University, and his poetry and essays have appeared in many journals including The New York Times, Poetry, The Southern Review and Prairie Schooner. His poem “Indiana Flight” is etched in the stained glass mural of  British artist Martin Donlin in the Indianapolis International Airport and with the other so-called “Airpoets” he’s published “Rivers, Rails, and Runways” (2008) and “Airmail” (2011).

His poem “What Grows Here” is painted on the barn just outside of Greencastle following West Walnut Street to where it becomes West County Road 125 South. 

Heithaus has taught literature and creative writing at DePauw since 1996.