Chad Simpson said he writes about the Midwest because he dislikes of its “monolithic” characterless stereotype – the stereotype most of the Tri-State understand.

Simpson is the epitome of a current author with fresh ideas to offer the writing community, which was a reason Nicole Reid, the director of the RopeWalk Reading Series, invited him to campus.

“There’s also the fact that he’s relatively young, which helps our students see themselves more in him—see the talents capable of a professional writing career,” Reid said.

RopeWalk, an event organized to invite decorated authors to the USI campus to read their writing and spread ideas, provides the Tri-State with some of the most praised and current literary work available.

Feb. 28, the 2013 spring semester RopeWalk series kicked off with Simpson, who teaches at Knox College and specializes in short stories and flash fiction.

Senior creative writing and Spanish major, Michael Okray, is a student enrolled in the RopeWalk course, where students learn technique from the visiting authors and later apply it to their own work.  Students help coordinate the RopeWalk event, and they help ensure the author’s visit to USI is a successful one by volunteering their time; students pick the author up at the airport, show them around campus and advertise the event.

“Seeing an author do what he does – seeing him in his natural habitat – is always good,” Okray said.

Okray’s fiancé, senior history major, Jillian Utter, attended her first RopeWalk and added to what Okray said, “I don’t want to say I was surprised, but it was nice to hear how the authors speak with their own voice.”

Simpson read four stories in his “own voice,” varying in length, from his collection “Tell Everyone I Say Hi.” Simpson said he chose his material, “Miracle,” “fourteen,” “The Woodlands” and “Let x” the day of the reading.

“I feel kind of bad here. I was talking with the RopeWalk class for the past 30 minutes and hearing what they loved. And I’m not reading any of those,” Simpson said.

And so the reading began with a “Miracle,” the first story in Simpson’s collection. From the opening line, the narrator’s heart must have exploded in his chest, “My brother calls and says to get to the bar as fast as I can – he thinks he just died.”

Simpson said he prefers to read that story first because his heart is beating “really fast.”

When the next story came around, Simpson donned a new role as a 14 year-old girl and told the audience, “Imagine I’m young and kind of spunky.”  

“fourteen,” a coming-out story, involves the three dimensional relationship of two sisters and a trip to Champaign, Ill., a midwestern city some students on campus are familiar with

“Let x,” a short story Simpson admitted was a bit autobiographical, took the audience back to the days of math class and variables. For Simpson, the story took him back to a childhood love, a computer club, and a swift kick to the stomach.  

Simpson read “The Woodlands,” which focused on a character entirely different than a “spunky” girl, and required him to take on yet another role as the reader.

In order to begin writing, Simpson said he starts with an image and tries to make it matter, and that his description is often times real. He offered a tidbit of personal advice when it came critique of writing, “The stuff that is most significant sometimes is the stuff you don’t want to hear.”

Simpson said he learned a lot about writing, such as structure and character perception, by listening to other authors read.

“I always feel really lucky whenever anybody invites me to come read somewhere because there are so many really great writers out there,” Simpson said.

Simpson said the audience was enthusiastic, most of which lined up after the reading to get their books signed in the Cone – a feature of USI Simpson didn’t believe existed.

“I haven’t had a bad experience yet. This has certainly been one of the great ones,” Simpson said. “The audience seemed really receptive, and overall I really enjoyed the fact that I heard a couple of people gasp a couple times, and I saw looks on their faces. It seemed like they wanted to know what was coming next. I really appreciated that – that they seemed to be with the stories.”

Simpson said he was glad to see such a turn out supporting RopeWalk at USI.

Simpson plans to visit bookstores, events and more colleges in the future, including Columbia College in Chicago.

The spring semester RopeWalk series continues with two more authors, Chloe Caldwell and Donald Ray Pollock.