Visiting Writers Series

Visiting Writers 2012–13

All readings free and open to the public.

Zach Savich
Oct. 2, 2012 |  7:30 p.m.  |  Isaacs Auditorium  

Savich is the author of three collections of poetry: The Firestorm (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2011), Annulments (Center for Literary Publishing, Colorado State University, 2010), and Full Catastrophe Living (University of Iowa Press, 2009). 

Lia Purpura
Oct. 18, 2012  |  7:30 p.m.  |  Isaacs Auditorium

Lia Purpura is widely recognized as both an essayist and poet. Her books include Rough Likeness (essays, Sarabande Books, 2012) King Baby (poems, Alice James Books, 2008), On Looking (essays, Sarabande Books, 2006), a finalist for the national Book Critics Circle Award, and Increase (essays, University of Georgia Press, 2000), winner of the Associated Writing Programs Award.   

Claire Vaye Watkins
Nov. 13, 2012  |  7:30 p.m.  |  Isaacs Auditorium

Claire Vaye Watkins’ stories and essays have appeared in Granta, Paris Review, One Story, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, and Best of the West, 2011. Her collection of short stories, Battleborn, was published by Riverhead Books in 2012.

Lauren Slater
Feb. 18, 2013   |  4:30 p.m.  |  Degenstein Center Theatre 

Lauren Slater, a psychologist and writer, is the author of six books, including Welcome to my Country (1996), Prozac Diary (1998), Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir (2000), and Opening Skinner’s Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the 20th Century (2004). She was Guest Editor of Best American Essays, 2006.

Bonnie Jo Campbell
March 18, 2013  |  7:30 p.m.  |  Isaacs Auditorium 

Bonnie Jo Campbell’s short story collection American Salvage was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award in Fiction. An earlier collection Women and Other Animals won the AWP prize for short fiction. Her critically acclaimed novel Once Upon a River was published by Norton in 2011.

Elizabeth Beier

April 15, 2013  |  7:30 p.m.  |  Isaacs Auditorium

Elizabeth Beier is an executive editor at St. Martin’s Press. Among the authors she has helped bring to public attention are Tom Perrota (Little Children) and Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez (The Dirty Girls Social Club).

Past Visiting Writers have included:

• Lee K. Abbott                      
• Rick Bass
• Richard Bausch 
• Madison Smartt Bell
• Eavan Boland
• Robert Boswell 
• David Bradley
• Fleda Brown
• Frederick Busch 
• Rafael Campo
• Lorene Cary
• Joy Castro
• Dan Chaon
• Judith Ortiz Cofer
• Billy Collins
• Bernard Cooper
• Robert Cording
• Robert Creeley
• Fred D'Aguiar
• Charles D’Ambrosio
• Lydia Davis
• Andre Dubus III
• Stephen Dunn
• Lynn Emanuel
• Danielle Evans
• Carolyn Forché
• Tom Franklin
• James Galvin
• Cristina Garcia
• Dagoberto Gilb
• Louise Glück
• Ron Hansen
• Joy Harjo
• James Harms
• Colin Harrison
• Larry Heinemann
• Brian Hanry
• Edward Hirsch
• Tony Hoagland
• Ha Jin
• Rodney Jones
• Mary Karr
• Jill McCorkle
• James Alan McPherson
• Sue Miller
• Antonya Nelson
• Sharon Olds
• Stewart O'Nan
• Jennifer Perrine
• Tom Perrotta
• Jayne Anne Phillips
• Kevin Pilkington
• Andrew Porter
• Claudia Rankine 
• Nick Ripatrazone 
• Richard Rodriguez
• Esmeralda Santiago
• Bob Shacochis
• Enid Shomer
• Rachel Simon
• Art Spiegelman
• Gerald Stern
• Jay Varner ’03 
• John Vernon
• G.C. Waldrep
• Nancy Willard
• Tobias Wolff 
• Steve Yarbrough