IU alumna draws on local serving experience in 1st novel

IU alumna and novelist Tara Yellen came back to IU on Wednesday for a book signing and reading at the Indiana Memorial Union Bookstore. Her book “After Hours at the Almost Home” draws on some of her experiences in Bloomington as a bar server.\nThe book, which took Yellen “a weekend to write and eight years to revise,” centers on a bar named the Almost Home and is told from the perspectives of six different characters. While she was an undergraduate at IU more than 10 years ago, Yellen experienced the bar culture firsthand as a server at Yogi’s Bar and Grill and later at Nick’s English Hut. Old bosses and co-workers from both restaurants were at the book signing.\nYogi’s manager Chris Karl remembers and is fond of the short stories Yellen used to write as an undergraduate. The two have remained close, and Yellen sent Karl a copy of her book before it was available for purchase. “It’s all your fault” is written on the title page of the book above her signature.\n“Everything I see and experience comes out in my writing,” Yellen said.\nYellen received her master’s degree in creative writing from Colorado University-Boulder, and later her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Virginia.\nCreative writing professor Tony Ardizzone said Yellen was a “dazzling young writer” as an undergraduate. He pulled Yellen aside after class one day and told her she had the talent to be a professional writer if she wanted to be, wisdom that Yellen credits for jump-starting her writing initiative.\nNow their relationship is different, Ardizzone said.\n“There’s nothing more I can teach her,” he said. “(It’s now) a writer-writer relationship.”\nBloomington resident and Bluebird bartender Leo Cook had never been to a book signing until Wednesday. After Yellen read a few passages from “After Hours at the Almost Home,” he quickly bought her book and had her sign it. Her focus on the bar culture was what he found most outstanding.\n“She captured the world of the bar industry vividly,” he said.\nAfter the book signing at the Union, Yellen took a pile of her books to Yogi’s where patrons could meet and greet the author in a more familiar environment. Yellen, a part-time nanny, teacher and freelance editor, relaxed a bit and sipped a margarita between signing copies of her book. Even though she’s a published author, she said she still lives the starving-artist lifestyle. She has a passion for writing and is not worried about the sophomore jinx. She’s already hard at work on her second book.\n“(Writing) fuels me,” Yellen said. “I’m excited as hell to get it out now.”