Visiting Writers Series

The Visiting Writers Series was introduced to campus in 2005 as a way to connect students with contemporary authors whose works have significantly impacted the world of literature. In each installment of the Series, students and faculty attend a lecture given by the author and are invited to participate in creative discussions and workshops. By fostering organic relationships between the University community and visiting authors, the Series promotes critical thinking and cultural diversity.

The series has included internationally and nationally renowned poets and fiction writers, including:

Joyce Carol Oates, winner of the National Book Award and author of over 40 novels

Mary Karr, bestselling author of The Liars Club and award-winning poet

Natasha Trethewey, Pulitzer Prize winner & Poet Laureate

Caryl Phillips Afro-Caribbean writer, essayist, novelist

Brian Turner, US Army Iraqi War Veteran Poet, author of the book, Here, Bullet

Robert Pinsky, former three-time United States Poet Laureate

Colm Toibin. Irish Novelist and author of the recent Broadway production, A Testament of Mary

Nick Flynn, memoirist and poet, author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, which became the film, Being Flynn, starring Robert DeNiro

Mary Gaitskill, novelist and short story writer, National Book Award finalist

Andrei Codrescu Romanian-born American poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and commentator for National Public Radio

Richard Blanco, Cuban-American poet, President Obama’s Inauguration poet

Louise Gluck, Pulitzer Prize winner and US Poet Laureate

Upcoming Events

Mon Feb ^{3, 2025}

2/3 at 6 PM The Great Hall -104

Visiting Writers

Akhil Sharma – Visiting Writer

Sharma is a highly decorated short-story writer and novelist; he’s been awarded many of the most prestigious prizes and recognitions that a fiction writer can receive. His first novel, An Obedient Father (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000), hailed in New York Magazine by Jonathan Franzen as “A great novel” and described by Hilary Mantel in the New York Review of Books as “uncompromising,” with a “first chapter . . . [that] blasts off the locks and splinters the wood,” received the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

Free Event

Past Events

Wed Nov ^{6, 2024}

11/6 at 4:30 PM Great Hall 104 (Julian Abele Room)

Visiting Writers

John Vercher

John’s debut novel, Three-Fifths, was named one of the best books of 2019 by the Chicago Tribune. In the U.K., Three-Fifths was named a Book of the Year by The Sunday Times, The Financial Times, and The Guardian. His second novel, After the Lights Go Out, was published by Soho Press. It’s been called “simply brilliant” by Publishers Weekly in a starred review, “shrewd and explosive” by The New York Times, and was named an Editors’ Choice in Adult Fiction for 2022 by Booklist. His third novel, Devil Is Fine has received starred reviews from Booklist and BookPage, was named a Best New Book of the Summer by TIME Magazine and The Root, an Indie Next pick for July, and one of the Top Ten Books to Add to Your Reading List in June by the Los Angeles Times. Additionally, Devil is Fine was a June book pick by The Center for Fiction, one of the 12 Must-Read Books of June by The Chicago Review of Books, a Book of the Day for July by NPR, and was featured on NPR’s It’s Been A Minute.

Past Event

Tue Oct ^{29, 2024}

10/29 at 4:30 PM Julian Abele Room (The Great Hall Room 104)

Visiting Writers

Poetry Readings with Q&A Featuring Alicia Ostriker & Joan Larkin

ALICIA OSTRIKER has published 19 collections of poetry, been twice nominated for the National Book Award, and has twice received the National Jewish Book Award for Poetry, among other honors. JOAN LARKIN is the author of five previous collections of poetry, including Blue Hanuman (2014); My Body: New and Selected Poems (2007), which received the Audre Lorde Award from the Publishing Triangle; Lambda Literary Award winner Cold River (1997); and Housework (1975). With Jaime Manrique, Larkin translated Sor Juana’ s Love Poems, a bilingual edition of Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz’ s poetry (1997).

Past Event

Tue Oct ^{29, 2024}

10/29 at 2:50 PM Julian Abele Room (The Great Hall Room 104)

Visiting Writers

A Tribute to Jean Valentine – Panel Discussion featuring Alice Ostriker, Joan Larkin, Carey Salerno, and Anne Marie Macari

Jean Valentine was born in Chicago, earned her B.A. from Radcliffe College, and lived most of her life in New York City. She won the Yale Younger Poets Award for her first book, Dream Barker and Other Poems, in 1965. Valentine authored over a dozen collections of poetry including, The River at Wolf (1992); Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965-2003 (2007); Break the Glass (2010); and Shirt in Heaven (2015). All of her full-length works, including an unpublished manuscript, have been compiled in the posthumous collection, Light Me Down: The New & Collected Poems of Jean Valentine (2024).

Past Event

Wed Apr ^{10, 2024}

4/10 at 5:30 PM The Great Hall Auditorium

Visiting Writers

Hernan Diaz

Hernan Diaz is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of two novels translated into thirty-four languages. He is the recipient of the John Updike award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, given to “a writer whose contributions to American literature have demonstrated consistent excellence.”

Past Event

Thu Nov ^{16, 2023}

11/16 at 4:30 PM Great Hall 104 (Julian Abele Room)

Visiting Writers

Mihaela Moscaliuc and Michael Waters

Mihaela Moscaliuc is the author of the poetry collections Cemetery Ink (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021), Immigrant Model (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015) and Father Dirt (Alice James Books, 2010), translator of Liliana Ursu’s Clay and Star (Etruscan Press, 2019) and Carmelia Leonte’s The Hiss of the Viper (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2015), editor of Insane Devotion: On the Writing of Gerald Stern (Trinity University Press, 2016), and co-editor (with Michael Waters) of Border Lines: Poems of Migration (Knopf, 2020). She has published scholarship in the field of Romani Studies, on issues of representation, appropriation, exophony and code-switching, and on the works of Kimiko Hahn, Agha Shahid Ali, and Colum McCann. She is the Translation Editor for Plume. Michael Waters’ recent books include Sinnerman (Etruscan Press, 2023), Caw (BOA Editions, 2020), & The Dean of Discipline (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018). Darling Vulgarity (BOA Editions, 2006) was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His co-edited anthologies include Border Lines: Poems of Migration (Knopf, 2020) & Reel Verse: Poems About the Movies (Knopf, 2019). His poems have appeared in numerous journals, includingPoetry, American Poetry Review, Paris Review, Yale Review, & Kenyon Review. A 2017 Guggenheim Fellow, recipient of five Pushcart Prizes & fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Fulbright Foundation, & NJ State Council on the Arts, Waters lives without a cell phone in Ocean, NJ.

Past Event

Mon Oct ^{30, 2023}

10/30 at 4:30 PM Great Hall 104 (Julian Abele Room)

Visiting Writers

Kaitlyn Greenidge

Kaitlyn Greenidge’s debut novel is We Love You, Charlie Freeman (Algonquin Books), one of the New York Times Critics’ Top 10 Books of 2016. Her writing has appeared in the Vogue, Glamour, the Wall Street Journal, Elle, Buzzfeed, Transition Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Believer, American Short Fiction and other places. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Whiting Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University and the Guggenheim Foundation. She is currently Features Director at Harper’s Bazaar as well as a contributing writer for The New York Times. Her second novel, Libertie, is published by Algonquin Books and out now.

Past Event

Visiting Writers Series

Upcoming Events

Akhil Sharma – Visiting Writer

Past Events

John Vercher

Poetry Readings with Q&A Featuring Alicia Ostriker & Joan Larkin

A Tribute to Jean Valentine – Panel Discussion featuring Alice Ostriker, Joan Larkin, Carey Salerno, and Anne Marie Macari

Hernan Diaz

Mihaela Moscaliuc and Michael Waters

Kaitlyn Greenidge

Let’s Keep In Touch!

Let’s Keep In Touch!