It takes a pretty important writer to have an entire city celebrate his existence for an entire year. But Kurt Vonnegut is an important writer and his hometown of Indianapolis knows it.

Of course, he doesn't live there now (opting, like so many successful writers, to live in New York), but the city of his birth and upbringing still claims him as his own. That is why Mayor Bart Peterson has officially deemed 2007 as "The Year of Vonnegut."

Celebrations will include Vonnegut-themed lectures, readings, theaters, exhibitions, book clubs and films.

It seems that quite a bit of attention is also being focused on Vonnegut's German ancestry. A series of German based concerts will be held throughout the year, as well as workshops focusing on German handicrafts such as Scherenschnitte, "the German tradition and folk art of paper cutting."

Most importantly, the man himself will appear on April 28 to speak at Clowes Memorial Hall as part of the Marian McFadden Memorial Lecture series. I've heard him speak before, and believe me, you don't want to miss this.

Lastly, just in case his books aren't as immortal as we all believe, they will be carefully sealed in a time capsule so that future readers can enjoy them as well--unless of course, someone dropped the ice-nine and the future is encased in a block of ice.

Filed under: Books