Published: May 15, 2008 10:23 pm            

2003 Indiana State grad to publish first book this year

TERRE HAUTE — Erin Pringle, who graduated from Indiana State University in 2003, will have her first book, “The Floating Order,” a collection of 21 stories, published by Interbirth Books at the end of 2008.

Pringle wrote many of the stories in “The Floating Order” while attending I.S.U. and living on Poplar Street. “I was pretty much writing all the time. On bar napkins at the Tap Room and in journals I carried everywhere. I recently sent a new story to a former professor who no longer teaches at ISU and he commented on one of my sentences and said it reminded him of living in Terre Haute and the regional tic.”

Of the stories in “The Floating Order,” Pringle says, “All the stories are dark, a sort of Grimm’s fairy-tale vision of the Midwest. Although many of the characters are children, the stories are not for children. I’ve always had nightmares, and so maybe my mom reading to me at bedtime right before I had nightmares sort of hard-wired my brain to think that happy stories turn into nightmares. Or maybe that’s just an interesting story for an answer. Maybe it’s more apt to say that I grew up in a town that had been declining in population for a hundred years and then I went to school in Terre Haute and walked through a pretty much abandoned downtown every day. To me, the Midwest feels very haunted and lost and I never intend to write about it, but it’s in my writing, no matter how much I try to disguise it.”

Pringle is glad she decided to publish with Interbirth not only because “this book is my first-born, and I want it in safe arms,” but also because Interbirth makes “lovely” books that are “books you want on your shelfómore than two pieces of flimsy cardboard glued together by a machine.”

Interbirth Books “specializes in producing handcrafted books of innovative and inventive poetry, prose, and visual art” (publisher Web site). Pringle’s “The Floating Order” will be released both in hand-bound and soft-cover versions. The hand-bound version will have a limited run and each book is assembled and sewn by hand and will be personally signed by the author.

Most of the stories have been published in literary journals or magazines and several have won awards. Her story “The Only Child,” illustrated by Warren Craghead, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and named a Best American Notable Non-Required Reading in 2007.

The 26-year old daughter of Carol Pringle and the late James Pringle, Erin Pringle graduated from Casey-Westfield Jr.-Sr. High School in 2000. She has her B.S. in English from Indiana State University with a minor in Creative Writing, and her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Texas State University.

Pringle lives in San Marcos with her husband Jeremy Toungate and their three dogs. She teaches College Writing at Texas State University.

For updates on her writing and publications and to read some of the stories in The Floating Order, visit www.myspace.com/

erinpringle. For more information about Interbirth Books, visit www.interbirthbooks.org.

        

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