Literary Journal

So It Goes is the literary journal of the Kurt Vonnegut Museum * Library—a unique
publication designed to bring together work from veterans and civilians, established
authors and virtual unknowns, high school students and nonagenarians. It’s a journal
that has been, in a way, unstuck in time.

So It Goes XIV: Year of the Journalist

True to Kurt Vonnegut’s ethos of kindness, common decency, and free expression, as well as his passion for social justice, environmentalism, and peace, So It Goes is a literary journal with a conscience. A significant percentage of each issue’s contents come from veteran artists and authors. Each issue revolves around a theme in keeping with Vonnegut’s persona. Previous themes include War and Peace (I), Humor (II), Creativity (III), Social Justice (IV), Indiana (V), A Little More Common Decency (VI), Lonesome No More (VII), Slaughterhouse-Five (VIII), Civic Engagement (IX), The Good Earth: Vonnegut and the Environment (X), 1922 – 2122 (XI), Core of the American Experience (XII), and A Labor of Love (XIII).

Submissions 2025

“I . . . enrolled as a graduate student in the Anthropology Department of the University
of Chicago. But I didn’t want to be an anthropologist. . . . I only hoped to find out more about human beings. I was going to be a journalist!”
–Kurt Vonnegut, Bagombo Snuff Box

 

At Shortridge High School in Indianapolis between 1938 and 1940, a young Kurt Vonnegut wrote for the student paper, The Shortridge Echo. Vonnegut continued to follow the path of journalism at Cornell University, where he served as managing editor of The Cornell Sun. Later, while studying anthropology at the University of Chicago, he worked as a beat reporter for the Chicago City News Bureau. He would be influenced all his writing life by the simple rules of journalism: get the facts right, compose straightforward declarative sentences, and know the audience. 

The So It Goes Year of the Journalist issue recognizes stories of journalists making the deadline, keeping us informed, and carving out a meaningful life’s work in a profession that has changed significantly in the last century, in large part due to technology.

Submission Requirements

Thank you in advance for your submissions to our twelfth issue of So It Goes. The journal will launch in Fall 2025. Selected contributors will receive one free hard copy. Previous issues of the So It Goes journal are available in the library’s online gift shop through kvmlshop.org.

If you have any questions, contact us at [email protected].

THIRTEENTH Edition Contributors

Kathi Badertscher, PhD

Director of Graduate Programs at the IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
Kathi Badertscher, PhD, is Director of Graduate Programs at the IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Dr. Badertscher teaches a variety of BA, MA, and doctoral courses, including Applying Ethics in Philanthropy and History of Philanthropy. She has participated in several Teaching Vonnegut workshops and is a member of the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library. Dr. Badertscher has been a guest speaker on ethics in philanthropy, including at the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners – Indianapolis Council; Association of Fundraising Professionals – Indiana Chapter; and Zhou Enlai School of Government, Nankai University, Tianjin, China. In 2019 she received IUPUI Office for Women, Women’s Leadership Award for Newcomer Faculty. In 2019 and 2020 she received the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Graduate Teaching Award.
Dr. Badertscher’s publications include “Fundraising for Advocacy and Social Change,” co-authored with Shariq Siddiqui in Achieving Excellence in Fundraising, 5th ed., 2022; “Insulin at 100: Indianapolis, Toronto, Woods Hole, and the ‘Insulin Road,’ co-authored with Christopher Rutty, Pharmacy in History (2020); and three articles in the Indiana Magazine of History: “A New Wishard Is on the Way,” “Evaline Holliday and the Work of Community Service,” and “Social Networks in Indianapolis during the Progressive Era.” Her chapters on social welfare history will appear in three upcoming edited volumes on the history of philanthropy, including “The Legacy of Edna Henry and Her Contributions to the IU School of Social Work,” Women at Indiana University: Views of the Past and the Future, edited by Andrea Walton, Indiana University Press, 2022 (forthcoming). Dr. Badertscher is also the Philanthropy and Nonprofits Consulting Editor for the forthcoming Digital Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, edited by David J. Bodenhamer and Elizabeth Van Allen, Indiana University Press, 2021. Dr. Badertscher is an active volunteer in the Indianapolis community. At present, she is a Coburn Place Safe Haven Board Member and a Children’s Bureau/Families First Brand and Marketing Advisor. Dr. Badertscher holds the MA in History from Indiana University and the MA and PhD in philanthropic studies from the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

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Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library Volunteer Application

Please contact [email protected] if you have any questions about this application’s content.