Events & Visiting Writers

One of the features of our new Writing Specialization major is a class with visiting writers. We call it the Contemporary Writers Colloquium (Eng. 468). In it, students will read the work of some well-established creative writers who will come to the class and respond to the creative work of students. This is followed by an evening public reading given by the professional writer. In 2006, we had David Wojahn (Yale Younger Poet Award winner, and author of five books of poetry from the University of Pittsburg Press, including his Selected Poems called Interrogation Palace); Justin Tussing (a fiction writer whose novel The Best People In the World was published by HapperCollins, and whose short fiction has appeared in the NewYorker, TriQuarterly, and Third Coast); and Lucia Perillo (recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award, winner of both the Kate and Kingsley Tufts prizes, the Norma Farber Award, and author of four books of poetry including Dangerous Life, Body Mutinies, Luck is Luck, and The Oldest Map With The Name America).

Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series

We also sponsor the Lion Rock Visiting Writers series of readings. Besides the writers who attend the Contemporary Writers Colloquium, we sponsor a reading during fall and winter quarters as well. We also sponsor readings by faculty and students, including a reading for students who have their work published in our annual magazine, Manastash.

Reading Schedule

	Monday, November 3, 7:30 p.m. Samuel Green Green was born in Sedro-Wolley, Washington, in 1948, and is the first Poet Laureate of the State of Washington. Among his ten collections of poems are Vertebrae: Poems 1972-1996 (Eastern Washington University Press) and The Grace of Necessity (Carnegie-Mellon University Press). He has been visiting poet and poetry teacher at Seattle University for several years and is been active with the Skagit River Poetry Festivals. Location: Mary Grupe Center
	Tuesday, November 18, 7:30 p.m. David Guterson Guterson was born in Seattle, Washington, and received an MA from the University of Washington. He is best known as the author of Snow Falling on Cedars (1994), which won the 1995 PEN/Faulkner Award. He is also the author of a short story collection, The country Ahead of us, the Country Behind (1989). His latest novel is titled The Other. Location: Music Building Concert Hall
	Tuesday, January 13, 7:30 p.m. Rob Schnelle Schnelle is the author of one book, Valley Walking: Notes on the Land (1997, Washington State UP). Schnelle joined Central Washington University’s faculty in 1992. His work has also been featured in anthologies as well as journals such as The Seattle Review, The Bellevue Literary Review, Weber Studies, Bird Watcher's Digest, and Writing on the Edge. Location: Mary Grupe Center
	Tuesday, February 3, 7:30 p.m. Richard Robbins Robbins is the author of three collections of poetry: The Untested Hand, Famous Persons We Have Known, and The Invisible Wedding. He is the director of the MFA in Writing program at Minnesota State University, where he is the Director of the Good Thunder Reading Series. He lives in Mankato, Minnesota. Location: Mary Grupe Center
	Tuesday, February 17, 7:30 p.m. Judy Kleck Kleck is the author of a collection of poetry, Culling the Petals (2008, Finishing Line Press). Judy studied at the University of Arizona with poet Jon Anderson. She has taught at Central Washington University for over 20 years, where she is currently Coordinator Of Internships for the English Department. Location: Mary Grupe Center
	Thursday, April 21, 7:30 p.m. Kim Barnes Barnes’ new novel, is A Country Called Home (2008, Knopf). She is the author of two memoirs, Hungry for the World and In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country, which was a finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize, and a novel, Finding Caruso. In the Wilderness also was honored with a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award. In 1996, she received the PEN/Jerard Fund Award for an emerging woman writer of nonfiction. She lives in Idaho with her husband, Robert Wrigley. Location: Mary Grupe Center
	Tuesday, May 5, 7:30 p.m. Prageeta Sharma Sharma is the author of three collections of poetry, the latest being Infamous Landscapes (2008, Fence Books). Her second collection, The Opening Question was the winner of the 2004 Fence Modern Poets Prize. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Brown University and directs the MFA in Writing Program at the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana. Location: Mary Grupe Center
	Tuesday, May 19, 7:30 p.m. Anthony Doerr Doerr is the author of three books, The Shell Collector, About Grace, and Four Season’s in Rome. Doerr’s short fiction has won three O. Henry Prizes and has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories, The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories and The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Fiction. He has won the Barnes "&" Noble Discovery Prize, the Rome Prize and the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award. Doerr lives in Boise, Idaho with his wife and two sons. He currently teaches in the low-residency writing program at Warren Wilson College. From 2007 to 2010, he will be the Writer-in-Residence for the State of Idaho. Location: Mary Grupe Center