Mike Kitchell, a 2009 NIU graduate with a BFA in photography, is published.

Despite the fact that his degree is in a more visual form of storytelling, his recent tour showed off his knack for the written word.

Kitchell is already a published writer who recently went on tour to promote his new work in Artifice Magazine.

The Northern Star caught up with Kitchell for an interview on the rigors of touring.

Northern Star: Tell me about what you had published.

Mike Kitchell: I’ve had stories published (or they’re forthcoming) in a variety of lit mags both online and in print: Lamination Colony, PANK, Artifice, Invisible City, No Colony, and some other places. The tour was a promotional tour for the release of the second issue of Artifice Magazine, which is where my story “Architecture, Anamnesis” is published. You can buy the issue from artificemag.com, or there are a couple of bookstores in Chicago that stock it. Artifice is, in comparison to magazines like The New Yorker or The Chicago Review, a fairly tiny non-profit, so it’s not something you can just go to Barnes & Noble to pick up.

NS: Who did you go on tour with? Where did you go?

MK: There were five of us who piled into the tour van: Artifice Magazine’s three editors (who each take on various responsibilities)– Rebekah Silverman, Tadd Adcox, and Ian McCarty. In addition to me, the other “reader” who went on tour was Andrew Farkas. Over the course of the month there were readings in Chicago, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Washington D.C., New York City and Cambridge, [Mass]. We did the Baltimore/DC/NYC/Cambridge stops back-to-back-to-back-to-back Wednesday [Oct.] 13 through Saturday [Oct.] 16. It was a lot of fun because the venues we read at in each city were totally different. In Indianapolis we read at Big Car Gallery, an art space. In Baltimore the event was held at Jamie Gaughran-Perez’s apartment (Jamie’s the co-director of the small press Narrow House). In DC we read at a rad dive bar called The Wonderland Ballroom. In NYC we read at a more “upscale” bar, The Penny Farthing, and then in Cambridge we read at The Enormous Room, a sort of event space above a bar & grill.

NS: How can aspiring writers look to spread their writing to a larger audience other than friends?

MK:The indie lit world is pretty awesome right now, and it seems like the Internet is really a great place to fall into a community of writers no matter where you live.

There are a couple of group blogs that I’ve found helpful. They’re a great way to see what’s going on in the indie lit world, though they can kind of seem a bit overwhelming when you first jump in. The two that I frequent are HTMLGIANT (htmlgiant.com — where I’ve recently become a contributor) and Big Other (bigother.com). Both blogs have a multitude of contributors within indie-lit world, and there are daily posts about lit mags, new books, issues of writing and other cultural detritus that adds fuel to the fire.