Tomorrow Bookstore Presents: Indie Authors Showcase

Join Tomorrow Bookstore in an evening celebrating Indie Authors and their novels. A panel of indie authors, including Elizabeth Ellen (American Thighs), Brian Allen Carr (Opioid, Indiana), Michael Robert Liska (Alice, or the Wild Girl), and John Duffy (Where When It Rains), will be moderated by lit critic for Unherd and author Valerie Stivers (Famous Writers and Their Favorite Recipes).

After the moderated discussion, authors are inviting all attendees to walk with them over to Sundry and Vice bar, located inside Bottleworks Hotel, for a relaxed setting to get to know the authors and talk all things lit!

This is a great opportunity for all aspiring writers, students and those that are fans of literary fiction!

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Elizabeth Ellen is the author of several books including the cult classics Fast Machine and Person/a. She has been published in such places as American Short Fiction, Catapult, BOMB, Muumuu House, Forever Magazine, Joyland, Salon, and Harper’s Magazine, and is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize for her story,Teen Culture, published in the collection, Saul Stories. She is the founder of Short Flight/Long Drive Books and is the current publisher and editor of the literary journal, Hobart.

Brian Allen Carr is the author of Opioid, Indiana and Bad Foundations. He is an Aspen Words Finalist, a Wonderland Book Award winner, and was awarded the Texas Observer Story Prize by Larry McMurtry. He is from Texas and lives in Indiana.

Michael Robert Liska has had his fiction published in Epoch, Forever Magazine, The End, and on McSweeney's Internet Tendency. He also co-hosts the lowbrow Shakespeare podcast What Ho...A Rat!! He is a graduate of the MFA program in creative writing at Rutgers Newark, and currently lives on the Delaware River with a German shepherd. His first novel Alice, or The Wild Girl was released by Heresy Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, in September 2025.

John Duffy is the author of two novels and many works of short fiction. In 2022, his debut novel A Ballroom for Ghost Dancing was published, and it was later shortlisted for the Indiana Author Award. In 2024 his second novel, Where When It Rains, was released. Independent Book Review ranked it as one of the best reads of the year. He is currently working on a third novel. He lives in Bloomington, IN with his wife and daughter.

Valerie Stivers (moderator and author) is the Senior Editor of UnHerd U.S. Before that, she was the books columnist for Compact, and wrote a long-running column for The Paris Review. She is the food columnist for Our Sunday Visitor Magazine and a co-host of the podcast, Fretful Porpentine, on music in books. She hosts an occasional dinner series cooking from the lives of famous writers in Brooklyn, New York. In addition to UnHerd and Compact, her writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, First Things, Travel + Leisure, The Brooklyn Rail,Real Clear Books, The Rumpus, Food52 and Edible Jersey. Her book, The Writer’s Table: Famous Authors and Their Favorite Recipes, is forthcoming from Frances Lincoln.Look for Valerie on X @valerie_reads and Instagram @ivalleria.

Tomorrow Bookstore is partnering with Butler MFA for this event. Butler MFA will be tabling and discussing more about their program at the event. Learn more about them below!

Butler MFA

Butler’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing enhances creative and professional proficiency in the literary arts. Through various fiction and nonfiction writing workshops and enriching lectures by prominent writers and faculty, students are mentored through the diversely creative 36-credit hour program. Butler’s MFA in Creative Writing teaches techniques in all genres and spaces of writing, such as poetry, electives in screenwriting, teaching creative writing, alternative forms, graphic novel, young adult fiction, poetic craft, and literary editing and publishing. Learn more here.