Illinois State University’s Publications Unit will host a launch for the new chapbooks Things Are Tough All Over and The Next Train Home at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 26, in the Williams Hall Annex on campus. The evening will feature readings by chapbook authors and Illinois State alumni Jeffrey Higgins and Alan Lin at 7 p.m.
Higgins’ new work Things Are Tough All Over is a ghost-collage coalition of words and images composed between November 2013 and February 2016 by Higgins, with illustrations by Katherine O’Shea. Higgins is a Bloomington native, currently residing in Texas, where he is a production manager at Dalkey Archive Press. O’Shea, also an Illinois State alumna with a bachelor’s degree in ceramics, is a visual artist who lives in Normal. The two have worked jointly over the years, including helping to promote local Word Bombing events.
Lin’s The Next Train Home aims to capture the loneliness, longing, and hope of sailors lost at sea, doing their best to sail homeward. Through autobiographical fiction, historical narratives, and secondhand translations, Lin presents a nostalgic and hopeful exploration of the notions of home. Lin currently works as a staff member in the Office of the Registrar at Illinois State. He has a bachelor’s degree in English and publishing studies, and a master’s degree in creative writing.
For more information, contact Holms Troelstrup at jhtroel@ilstu.edu or (309) 438-3025.
