‘All I Should Not Tell:’ A Q&A with Purdue prof, Lafayette author Brian Leung on his latest novel

Plus, huge news out of Purdue and West Lafayette on a $1.8B semiconductor manufacturing plant coming to Discovery Park District. Indiana Senate GOP looks abortion ban that starts at zero weeks

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Before we get going today …

Remember that programming note early in the week? What a week to take a step back from the Based in Lafayette reporting project, right? Wednesday alone:

• Purdue and West Lafayette land a commitment from SkyWater Technology to build at $1.8 billion semiconductor manufacturing plant in the university’s Discovery Park District, part of a huge push by the university and the state to make the region a hub for designing and making chips for cars and all sorts of electronics. The Bloomington, Minnesota, is promising to bring 750 jobs in its first five years to the area just west of Purdue’s campus. Purdue President Mitch Daniels called it “the latest demonstration that Purdue and Greater Lafayette are now the hot new tech hub of a growing, diversifying Indiana economy.” For good overviews of the news, here’s a report from WBAA reporter Ben Thorp, another from WLFI reporter Joe Paul and the direct release from the university.

• Indiana Senate Republicans released its proposed, post-Roe legislation that includes a near ban on abortion, starting at zero weeks, outside exceptions for rape, incest or when the life of the mother is in danger. (Under current Indiana law, abortion is legal through 22 weeks.) The Senate is where a bill dealing with new abortion restrictions will start during the General Assembly’s special session, scheduled to begin Monday. How easily that will fly will have to be seen. Wednesday night, state Sen. Ron Alting, a Lafayette Republican, released a statement saying he wouldn’t accept any bill that didn’t include exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. Alting also added: “I will also be supporting a change to the proposed Senate Bill 1. This compromise would allow pregnant women, in consultation with their health provider, family and clergy, to make their own decisions during the first trimester of pregnancy. For a look at the Senate Republican plan, along with reaction and fallout, good places to start: this from Indianapolis Star reporters Kaitlin Lange and Arika Herron; this report from Indiana Capital Chronicle reporter Casey Smith; and this one from Indiana Public Broadcasting reporter Brandon Smith.

Looks like I’ll have some catching up to do next week.

Until then, here’s another bit of catching up, with an interview I’d been saving up to do for a while …

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THE WAIT TO TALK ABOUT THE LATEST FROM LAFAYETTE NOVELIST, PURDUE PROF BRIAN LEUNG

I interrupted Brian Leung as he was watering the gardens last week with a confession about “All I Should Not Tell,” his new novel, out in the spring from C&R Press.

Actually, I interrupted his standing across the street from the Lafayette home where he and his husband, Brian Yost, live, taking in a long view of the  annuals and perennials that framed the yard the way a passing driver might.

Leung’s self-critique was that with the property taken in as a portrait – “Isn’t that how you should look at it?” he asked – the gardens weren’t quite in balance. The verdict from the English professor, director of creative writing at Purdue and author of the novel “Ivy vs. Dogg: With a Cast of Thousands!” and the short fiction collection, “World Famous Love Acts”: “I have some work to do.”

Brian Leung (Photo provided)

My confession was more of an apology, which is where we started a conversation on a patio – just off the unbalanced side of the yard – about a book that had been out for months.

Question: Just to start, I have to apologize for being a slow reader. I told you we wouldn't do this until I finished the book. I take forever on these things. The read – pretty fast, once I cracked it.

Brian Leung: You do not have to apologize, because I have a husband who is a slow reader and who reads all of my work before he goes to sleep. So, I am forced, when I write a new book, every night to go to sleep, hearing him turn the pages way more slowly than I would hope they’d be turned.