Poetry Reading: Daniel Lassell and Ruben Quesada at Indy Reads – Indianapolis, IN

Join Daniel Lassell and Ruben Quesada on Sunday, October 5 at 1:30pm for a reading, discussion, and signing of their works.

There will be a reading, discussion, Q&A session, and a signing to follow.

This event is recommended for ages 16+.

All proceeds from book sales at Indy Reads support our English literacy programming for nearly 500 adult students and their families each year.

Daniel Lassell is the author of Spit, winner of the Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Prize, and two chapbooks, Ad Spot and The Emptying Earth. His poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Arkansas International, Colorado Review, Birmingham Poetry Review, and Poet Lore. Raised in Kentucky, he now lives in Bloomington, Indiana. 

About Frame Inside a Frame 

Frame Inside a Frame by Daniel Lassell explores the boundaries, overlaps, and portals of memory and seeking. Lassell’s collection is wildly surprising at every turn, greeting readers with visceral childhood memories, gritty landscapes of climate collapse, a quirky neighbor transfixed on love, a sexual predator who breaks into homes, a bat that disrupts sleep, a llama that bites off a man’s ear, a dog that eats the family’s Thanksgiving turkey, farmers condemning their machinery to rot in fields, a cow carcass that washes up on a city’s waterfront park, a hooligan feeding possums trash, and pollen everywhere. Taken together, Frame Inside a Frame is a constellation eyed toward the exploration of distance and meanings inherent within distance and proximity. 

Ruben Quesada edited the award-winning anthology Latinx Poetics: Essays on the Art of Poetry. His poetry and translations appear in the Best American Poetry series, the New York Times Magazine, Essential Queer Voices of U.S. Poetry, and elsewhere. Ruben’s writing has received fellowships and grants from the American Literary Translators Association, the Jentel Foundation, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Illinois Arts Council. His new poetry collection, Brutal Companion, won the Barrow Street Editors Prize and was recognized as A Notable Book of 2024 by the University of California. In the spring of 2025, Goodman Theater commissioned him to write a poem for Jordan Harrison’s The Antiquities.

About Brutal Companion (Barrow Street Press, 2024)

The prize-winning Brutal Companion is a disturbing and visceral collection of poetry on identity, sexuality, bereavement, and personal growth. Ruben Quesada’s lyrical intensity and vivid imagery delve into LGBT existence, providing a fierce meditation on survival to wrest meaning and resilience from even the darkest places. Quesada grieves and celebrates human connection, using nature to reflect the inner landscape. Using several poetic forms to stress trauma and desire, Brutal Companion follows gay life in all its beauty and cruelty. Reviewers say the collection opens with brutal directness and continues a dedication to vulnerability and truth-telling that creates space for commonly silenced experiences.

This event is Pay-What-You-Can. Here’s what your suggested donation can do for the Indy Reads community:

FREE – This ticket is for attendees that would like to attend this event and are unable to purchase a ticket. Indy Reads values our community and facilitators. We are proud to provide programming to all. Thank you for being a part of our community!

$10 – This donation covers the cost of one attendee to this event. Indy Reads strives to bring the very best programming to Fountain Square and all Hoosiers. Thank you for helping us to keep our quality programs accessible for all!

$20 – This donation covers the cost of two attendees to this event. If you are attending as an individual, your ticket at this level makes it possible for another who cannot afford a ticket to attend. It is only through the generosity of our community that we are able to support programs that enrich the lives of all Hoosiers. Thank you for your support!

Other – “Pay-What-You-Can” really does mean pay what you can. Indy Reads appreciates that every one of our community members is able to support our vision of 100% literacy for all in different ways. Whether you can pay $5 or $50, we are so excited to see you – and thank you for your support!