What: Novel reading, book signing and question-and-answer session
When: November 12 at 7:30 P.M.
Where: Letterman Building 125
Cost: Free and open to the public
Award-winning author Michael Poore is the devil.
At least he pretends to be in his novel, “Up Jumps the Devil.”
In the novel, Poore takes the persona of the Devil and writes about him in a different way.
“The style of writing you might find in Up Jumps the Devil—kind of a mix of comedy and fantasy and sadness—came about when I learned to turn off my filter. To quit trying to write nicely or professionally, and just wrote down whatever came drag racing through my brain,” Poore said.
From the fact that the cover depicts his character roasting marshmallows to how he drives the limousine in which President John F. Kennedy was shot, the book is full of twists characteristic of persona fiction as the Devil moves non-chronologically through time, causing mischief at every turn.
As a part of the Creative Writing guest author series, novelist Michael Poore, author of "Up Jumps the Devil," will read from his book, sign books and host a question-and-answer session Wednesday in the David Letterman Building.
Poore graduated with a bachelor's degree from Ohio University and has a green belt in Kung Fu from Sherwood Martial Arts Academy. Some of his more well-known works include "Up Jumps the Devil," "The Street of the House of the Sun" and "Blood Dauber," winner of a Readers Choice Award and finalist for the Sturgeon Award.
He got his first taste of writing fame in sixth grade when he wrote a story about Thanksgiving from the turkey’s point of view, and a local newspaper published it.
“The thing was, sixth grade teachers at elementary schools all over town made their students write essays about it,” Poore said. “And when I got to the consolidated junior high the next fall, I almost got my ass kicked for that.”
Director of Creative Writing and associate professor of English Sean Lovelace said he enjoys several aspects of this novel.
“It’s extremely well-written on a sentence level, it’s funny and fast-paced, and it’s really imaginative and inventive,” he said. “It’s conflict driven even from the third page on."
Poore said five pages into the novel, “the devil is having sex with a herd of cows. You have to learn to edit well, and learn balance, if you’re going to paint images like that.”
Lovelace, along with the other professors English department, chose to invite Poore as a part of the visiting author series, which has most recently included a screenwriter, a poet and a performance poet.
“With around 150 creative writing majors, we have a very vibrant community who don’t all enjoy it in the same way,” he said. “[Poore] is so different, and we really wanted the next author to be different than the previous speakers.”
Poore said he is as excited to visit Ball State as it is to have him, especially since he has a history with Ball State. He met his first wife here at a high school journalism workshop.
“It will be fun to see the campus again,” he said. “I mostly can’t wait to meet the writing faculty and students. I know their work, and some of us have emailed, but I look forward to striking up new friendships.”
Junior creative writing major Jeff Owens is a fan of Poore and will be introducing him at this event.
“I think one of the best compliments I can give Michael Poore’s work is that he makes me wish I could hang out with the Devil,” Owens said. “It’s a major accomplishment when you can make a protagonist out of the world’s oldest antagonist.”
Lovelace said the various guest authors’ visits always serve to energize the students within the major especially.
“Around this time in the semester, we really get into the doldrums of routine, and the energy level starts to go down,” he said, “but after these speakers, students get inspired and excited about writing—it even affects the work they create themselves.”
In the past, many of the guest writers through creative writing have had good turnouts, and the program expects one for this event as well. In fact, Lovelace decided to move this event from a smaller room in the Robert Bell Building to a larger one in the Letterman Building.
“I hope we have an impressive turnout for this week’s visiting author, like the one we had for Joyelle McSweeney,” Owens said. “I always love seeing how many people at BSU have a passion for the arts.”
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