Yaël Ksander

Yaël Ksander has worked as a radio producer, speechwriter, and drawing instructor; translated at the Seoul Olympics; and catered both of her own weddings. High points along the way include having met her heroes Todd Rundgren, Leo Steinberg, and Lynda Barry. A Washington, D.C., native, Yaël studied languages, literature, and art history at the University of Virginia (B.A.) and Columbia University (M.A., M.Phil.) before pursuing an M.F.A. in painting in Bloomington, where she ended up raising two magnificent children.

Posts by this contributor 8 results

Jacinda Townsend was associate professor of English at Indiana University in 2014 when her debut novel, ‘St. Monkey,’ was published. Now the Helen Zell Visiting Professor in Fiction at the University of Michigan, Townsend is already receiving praise for her new novel, ‘Mother Country,’ which came out in May. She will be at Morgenstern Books on Monday, June 6, for a conversation with Yaël Ksander. | Courtesy photo

A Conversation with Jacinda Townsend, Author of ‘Mother Country’

Yaël Ksander

Jacinda Townsend’s new novel, Mother Country, tackles the subject of motherhood from two perspectives on different sides of the world. Yaël Ksander spoke with Townsend for WFIU’s Inner States program, and she is sharing excerpts of that interview with Limestone Post. Townsend and Ksander will meet again, in person, at Morgenstern Books on June 6. Click here to read their conversation

June 4, 2022

Denise Breeden-Ost’s “Making It All Right” and Greta Lind’s “Split Open” each portrays the life of a wife and mother “smashing up against” expectations “to deliver their own form of rebellion,” says Yaël Ksander in her review of these two debut novels by Indiana authors.

Two Novels by Indiana Authors ‘Deliver Their Own Form of Rebellion’

Yaël Ksander

Yaël Ksander reviews two debut novels by Indiana authors that address the question “Can a woman have it all?” Denise Breeden-Ost’s Making It All Right and Greta Lind’s Split Open each portrays the life of a wife and mother “smashing up against” expectations “to deliver their own form of rebellion.” Click here to read Yaël’s review.

March 3, 2022

Sponsorship

Nancy Hiller’s latest book, ‘Shop Tails: The Animals Who Help Us Make Things Work,’ is ostensibly about the animals who have accompanied her during her distinguished career as a woodworker. But as reviewer Yaël Ksander writes, ‘Rebel Girl’ Hiller has done this before: use her craft to talk about broader issues. In this case, ‘Shop Tails’ isn’t just another publishing achievement, ‘it’s an artifact of the deep healing Hiller knew she could no longer put off.’

‘Shop Tails: The Animals Who Help Us Make Things Work’ by Nancy Hiller Book Review by Yaël Ksander for the Limestone Reader

Yaël Ksander

You won’t get too far into Nancy Hiller’s new book, Shop Tails: The Animals Who Help Us Make Things Work, without realizing you’re reading more than a book about critters, writes Yaël Ksander in her review for the Limestone Reader. This isn’t the first time Hiller has used woodworking to explore much bigger issues, but Shop Tails was written “at a reckoning point.” Click here to read Yaël’s review.

January 12, 2022

The Limestone Reader Book Review: ‘Sister City’ by Ian Woollen

Yaël Ksander

In this inaugural edition of The Limestone Reader Book Review, Yaël Ksander looks at Ian Woollen’s fifth novel, Sister City, which she calls a “wickedly whimsical satire” that connects fictional “sister cities” in Indiana and Mexico. Yaël says Woollen, who lives in Bloomington, writes in the tradition of John Irving and Kurt Vonnegut. Click here to read the inaugural Limestone Reader Book Review.

October 29, 2021

Artists (clockwise from left) Ellen Starr Lyon, Christy Wiesenhahn, Meg Lagodzki, and Sarah Pearce gather in Lyon's home studio to discuss how domestic life makes it “hard to remember that you are an artist. Especially if you’re a woman.” | Photo by Yaël Ksander

Remembering To Be an Artist When Life Gets in the Way

Yaël Ksander

Finding work-life balance isn’t what people normally associate with the Picassos and Pollocks of the art world. Yet it’s a real-life dilemma for many working artists. Writer Yaël Ksander talks with several artists about how domestic life makes it “hard to remember that you are an artist. Especially if you’re a woman.” Click here to read the full story.

October 12, 2017

Sponsorship

Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and Bloomington expat Joel Pett returned to his hometown recently for a gallery show — and a stand-up gig at Thomas Gallery. | Photo by Devta Kidd

Joel Pett: Humanist with a ‘Mean Streak a Mile Wide’ Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Joel Pett served up an adult portion of art and stand-up at his homecoming

Yaël Ksander, Devta Kidd

Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and Bloomington expat Joel Pett returned to his hometown recently for a gallery show — and a stand-up gig. After talking to Pett about his work, writer Yaël Ksander wonders whether a man with “a mean streak a mile wide” has, deep down, a passion for humanity. Click here to read the full story.

September 6, 2017

This photo by Jeffrey Wolin shows the last day of quarry season at the Independent Limestone quarry in 1983. This is one of many photographs Wolin took for his book, with text by Scott Russell Sanders, on the Indiana limestone industry, "Stone Country." | Photo by Jeffrey Wolin

‘Stone Country,’ the Land That Carved a People

Yaël Ksander

In her first article for Limestone Post, Yaël Ksander, a producer at WFIU, takes an in-depth look at the collaboration between photographer Jeffrey Wolin and writer Scott Russell Sanders, whose two books (published 30 years apart) are a chronicle of our quarries — the workers, rock, and cultural histories of the Indiana limestone industry. Click here to read the full story.