Alumni Spotlight: An Interview with Natalie Solmer ’12, Editor of The Indianapolis Review
March 2024
by Kellie Stewart
Butler MFA alum Natalie Solmer is a poet, editor, and Assistant Professor of English at Ivy Tech Community College. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in horticulture and has worked many jobs in the field. Throughout it all, she’s written poetry. Solmer’s written and visual art work has been published in a variety of literary journals and publications. In 2017 she founded The Indianapolis Review, an online quarterly publication featuring poetry, art, and visual poetry, where she serves as the Editor In Chief.
What do you remember about your MFA experience?
Natalie Solmer (NS): One of the most valuable things I took away from the program is the ability to read deeply and have a better understanding of how a piece of writing is crafted. I learned how to read my work from a more objective stance and be effective at revising, responding to the criticism that resonates, and incorporating the initial impulse of spirit that created the poem. I also gained a community of poets from my courses and my instructors. This is extremely important, almost as much as learning about craft. I learn from friends and mentors, and we help each other out with projects we are working on.
What did you do post-MFA?
NS: It’s been a very long and complicated road to get to where I am today, which is a full-time professor of English and Creative Writing at Ivy Tech Community College. I majored in horticulture and minored in poetry in my undergrad at Clemson University. I minored in poetry just for “fun” because I loved the classes so much. My professors there discouraged us from pursuing teaching, but I remember thinking that they had the greatest jobs in the world and I would like to do it someday! However, I thought it would be more practical to work in the field of horticulture. I did this for a long time before going back to grad school at the age of 29.
I [worked] as a grocery store florist for 13 years, including during the MFA. I also had both of my children during my MFA. Like I said, it was a very complicated time! I was lucky to immediately start working as an adjunct at Butler and then Ivy Tech, IUPUI, and Marian after my graduation from Butler. Adjunct life is not for the faint of heart. I also continued to work at the grocery store while teaching. After about five years of this, I finally earned a full-time position at Ivy Tech, and I have been very happy ever since! This result was why I went back to get an MFA, in addition to focusing more on my poetry and learning as much as I could.
Congratulations on founding and serving as the Editor In Chief of The Indianapolis Review! Can you share about that experience?
NS: One of the best things I gained from the MFA was a community of writers. We started a writing group, which lasted for a number of years. However, because I was getting so busy with kids and work, it became harder for me to get out as much. I wanted to start an online journal as a way of communicating and interacting with writers from home, a way of being involved in the poetry community, and a way of giving back. Several friends and colleagues from the writing group graciously signed on as staff members of The Indianapolis Review and have been with me ever since.
I was also eternally grateful to the online and print publications who had first published my work, and running this journal is a service I am doing for the community. That is how I look at it. I wanted everything to be free and accessible to readers and contributors. I also know how much of a need there is in the community for more outlets of publication. I will also say that I was greatly inspired by Butler MFA alum, Kaveh Akbar, and his Divedapper website, which he created during his time here. I saw how much he was able to accomplish from starting out with nothing. I had nothing at that time (2017), either. I was a full time adjunct and had no money; I couldn’t even pay the first website fee.
What is your work like as EIC?
NS: Being an EIC is an enormous amount of work, but it is a labor of love for me. I get very excited by the work that we receive, and I learn from reading so many submissions! I do look at every submission, even if a staff member is rejecting it. I also edit all of the webpages, even after someone builds the initial page. I also do all the social media and marketing, promoting, etc.
The Indianapolis Review focuses on promoting “artists and writers from our region, but also showcases work from around the country and the world.” We’ve seen familiar names of Butler professors, students, alumni, etc. on the masthead. Why is it important to showcase local artists?
NS: One discussion I’ve had a lot with colleagues and fellow poets is that Indiana isn’t necessarily known as an artistic hub, and we tend not to be thought of as a desirable place to live. I think that many people who are unfamiliar with Indiana have a narrow view of what this place is like. I did also start Indianapolis Review to showcase the talent that lives here and which goes overlooked sometimes.
Is there anything you’d like to share about what you’re currently writing?
NS: I have been working on my first book for about ten years. It evolved from my thesis into something else entirely, but it’s much, much improved. I do feel that it’s finally ready and I now feel like I have a real plan to get it published. I will say that the contest model of publication is brutal, and that is a whole other conversation, but I hope to have my first book out within a year or two.
Like so many other poets I know, I want to get more into essay writing and hybrid forms. I have been dabbling in that, alongside my visual poems. I have some pieces that I am sending out. As far as poems, I have four forthcoming publications, and most of my first book has been published. I still write new poems here and there and they keep on coming.
The Indy literary community is growing in so many different ways, with Butler MFA students, alumni, and professors involved throughout. Is there anything you’d like to say about being part of the literary community?
NS: I am very grateful that the Butler MFA exists! I was in the second graduating class. If it hadn’t been for the Butler MFA, I don’t think I would have an MFA. I wasn’t going to be able to leave Indy, and all the other programs were too competitive for me at the level I was at back then. It worked out perfectly for me and completely changed my life, despite the naysayers along the way, like my old professors who told me it was impossible to get a teaching job, so don’t go to grad school. I even had peers question what I was doing because I was struggling so hard financially and otherwise. It’s true that getting a teaching job is very, very difficult, but it’s not impossible. Also, I prefer teaching at a community college, rather than a traditional four-year college. Some folks may not see that as a success, but I do.
Indianapolis has a thriving arts scene, and I feel very lucky to be a part of it and associated with it at all. Soon, my children will be grown, and then I hope to be even more involved and attend more events and readings in person.
Indiana Arts Commission, Indiana Humanities, Big Car/Tube Factory, Indiana Writers Center– these are all institutions I have worked with and which are wonderful resources for our community. And there are writers, like Mitchell L. H. Douglas and Chantel Massey, who are creating free workshops for folks in the community. Butler and these other institutions provide a hub for writers and artists to meet, to exist, and to create. I’ve also been really excited to see all of the new bookstores popping up all over Indianapolis! This is really encouraging.
Do you have any advice for current MFA students?
NS: My advice for students who are approaching graduation is to follow the path that feels right to them, even if others are judging them and it feels impossible to succeed. Just keep going and see where it takes you. Be flexible to letting it shift and change.
My dream of being a professor didn’t necessarily look like this, but after teaching at four different places, I realized I was happier at a community college, anyway. I also thought I would be publishing my first book with a bigger, more prestigious publisher, but I have shifted on that as well. Maybe one day, but I realized I need to start somewhere. I also have become acquainted with the problems inherent in the publishing world and had a lot of hard realizations. Mostly, I am happiest just sharing my work with friends and colleagues and talking about poetry. That has not changed, and I don’t ever expect it to.