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The Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series schedules readings every quarter and features nationally known writers reading their own work. We have hosted  winners of the MacArthur Genius Award, WA State Poets Laureate, and recipients of Catamundo, Whiting, Guggenheim, Lannan, and NEA Fellowships, and other major prizes.

Each spring, students enrolled in ENG 568 and ENG 468: Contemporary Writers Colloquium (graduate and upper-level multi-genre writing workshops, respectively), meet with three visiting writers from the Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series. We also sponsor talks by professional editors and publishers, readings by faculty and students, including open mics, and an annual reading for students who have their work published in CWU's literary magazine, Manastash.

Past readers in the Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series include Natalie Diaz, Eduardo Corral, Elissa Washuta, Lucia Perillo, Anthony Doerr, Jos Charles, Major Jackson, Kim Barnes, Linda Bierds, David Guterson, David Wojahn, Prageeta Sharma, and many others.

The Series wishes to thank our many generous sponsors, including the College of Arts and Humanities, CWU Libraries, Museum of Culture and Environment, The Wildcat Shop, Karen Gookin, Len Thayer Grants, Humanities Washington, S&A, President's Office/Diversity and Inclusivity, the WGSS Program, The Douglas Honors College, and many partnerships across departments, schools, and the Kittitas Community, including those with Kittitas County Regional Library Board, One Book One County Program, Ellensburg Public Library, and Gallery One.

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Fall Student Reading

Tuesday, November 15th, 2022 6:00 PM PST
Shaw-Smyser Hall, room 115 or via Zoom

Submissions are open until November 9th at 5:00 PM. If you would like to participate as a student reader, please send a short piece of prose, poetry, or hybrid work that can be read aloud in three minutes or less to Theresa.Daigle@cwu.edu. 

Register here to attend this event virtually

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Luther Hughes & Jane Wong

Friday, February 10, 2023 1:30—3:00 PM PST
Poetry Craft Talk: "Voltas" & "Vulnerability"

CWU Brooks Library, 2nd Floor Student Commons
Q&A to follow — Refreshments will be served.
Click here to join this event virtually

 

 

 

 

Friday, February 10, 2023 6:00—7:30 PM PST
Poetry Reading
Featuring introductions by Michael Puni & Janelle Serio

CWU Brooks Library, 2nd Floor Student Commons
Q&A and book signing to follow
The Friends of the Library will be distributing both authors' books for free. While supplies last.
Click here to join this event virtually

 

 

 

Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series presents a poetry reading by Luther Hughes and Jane Wong.

Luther Hughes (he/him) is the author of the debut poetry collection, A Shiver in the Leaves (BOA Editions, 2022), and the chapbook Touched (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2018), recommended by the American Library Association. He is the founder of Shade Literary Arts, a literary organization for queer writers of color, and co-hosts The Poet Salon podcast. Recipient of the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenburg Fellowship and 92Y Discovery Poetry Prize, his writing has been published in American Poetry Review, Paris Review, Orion, and more. He was born and raised in Seattle, where he currently lives.

 

 

 

 

Jane Wong (she/her/hers) is the author of two poetry collections: How to Not Be Afraid of Everything (Alice James Books, 2021) and Overpour (Action Books, 2016). Her debut memoir, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, is forthcoming from Tin House in May 2023. She grew up in a Chinese American restaurant and is an Associate Professor at Western Washington University.

Michael Puni is an undergraduate at Central Washington University, where he plans to graduate in the upcoming spring term with a Bachelor of Arts. He plans to become a freelance writer and work along music publications, such as The Guardian and Pitchfork, as well as continue his aspirations as a model.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Janelle Serio is a story-loving dental hygienist who enjoys writing poems and stories containing themes surrounding identity and gender. She is a lover of human beings and an avid fiber artist. She has 6 kids, a husband, and a chiweenie. Janelle is from Portland, Oregon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Winter Student Reading

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2023 6:00 PM PST
Shaw Smyser 115 or via Zoom

Submissions are open until Tuesday, February 14th at 5:00 PM. If you would like to participate as a student reader, please send a short piece of prose, poetry, or hybrid work that can be read aloud in three minutes or less to Theresa.Daigle@cwu.edu. If you're selected for the reading, you will be informed by Friday, February 17th.

Click here to attend this event virtually.

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Taylor Brorby

Monday, March 6, 2023 3:00 PM
Craft Talk: The Politics of Place and the Landscape of Imagination

CWU Brooks Library, 2nd Floor Student Commons

Register in advance to attend this craft talk virtually

 

Monday, March 6, 2023 6:00 PM
Reading/Lecture and Book Signing
Featuring reading and introduction by Austin Fricke

Museum of Culture and Environment, Dean Hall Lobby

Register in advance to attend this reading virtually

Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series presents a prose reading/lecture and craft talk by Taylor Brorby, co-sponsored with the CWU President's office.

Taylor Brorby is the author of a memoir BOYS AND OIL: GROWING UP GAY IN A FRACTURED LAND, poetry collection CRUDE, nonfiction essay COMING ALIVE: ACTION AND CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, and edited anthology FRACTURE: ESSAYS, POEMS, AND STORIES ON FRACKING IN AMERICA. He will give a craft talk on "The Politics of Place and the Landscape of Imagination" and a public reading/lecture on topics addressed in his memoir, including extractive economies, queerness, disability, and climate change. Brorby is the Annie Tanner Clark Fellow in Environmental Humanities Center at the University of Utah.
Photo credit: Carroll Foster

You can learn more about Taylor on his website.

 

Austin Fricke is a graduate student in the MA English: Professional and Creative Writing program. He has a background in secondary English education with major influences from his Arikara and Sioux heritages, writing prose speculative fiction, surrealism, dreamscapes, magical realism, and abstract nonfiction. He will be reading from his book A DECOLONIZING OF THE COSMOS.

 

 

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Alyssa Songsiridej

Wednesday, April 5, 2023 6:00—7:00 PM Reading

Featuring reading and introduction by Khoa Lee

CWU Brooks Library, 2nd Floor Commons

Register in advance for this webinar

Thursday, April 6, 2023 12:00—1:00 PM Craft Talk

CWU Brooks Library, 2nd Floor Commons

Register in advance for this webinar

Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series presents a reading by Alyssa Songsiridej.

Alyssa Songsiridej (she/her) is the author of the novel Little Rabbit, a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the Pen/Hemingway Award for Best Debut. A 2022 National Book Foundation 5 under 35 honoree, she lives in Philadelphia. She is also an editor at Electric Literature.

You can learn more about Alyssa on her website.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Taneum Bambrick

Wednesday, April 19, 2023 6:00—7:00 PM Poetry Reading

Featuring reading and introduction by Seanse Ducken.

CWU Brooks Library, 2nd Floor Commons

Register in advance for this webinar

Thursday, April 20, 2023 6:00—7:00 PM Craft Talk

CWU Brooks Library, 2nd Floor Commons

Register in advance for this webinar

Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series presents a reading by Taneum Bambrick. 

Taneum Bambrick (she/they) is the author of Intimacies, Received (Copper Canyon Press, Sept 2022) and Vantage, which was selected by Sharon Olds for the 2019 American Poetry Review/Honickman first book award (Apr 2019). Her chapbook, Reservoir, was selected by Ocean Vuong for the 2017 Yemassee Chapbook Prize. A graduate of the University of Arizona's MFA program, she is the winner of an Academy of American Poets University Prize, an Environmental Writing Fellowship from the Vermont Studio Arts Center, and the 2018 BOOTH Nonfiction Contest. Their essay, "Sturgeon," was named a notable essay of 2019. Her poems and essays appear or are forthcoming in The Nation, The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, PEN, Narrative, The Missouri Review, 32 Poems, West Branch, and elsewhere. She has received scholarships from the Sewanee Writers' Conference, and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. A 2020 Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, she is a Dornsife Fellow in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of                                                                                        Southern California, and Co-Book Reviews Editor                                                                                          for Pleiades Magazine.

Photo credit: Joshua David Watson

You can learn more about Taneum on their website.

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Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry

Edited by Elizabeth Bradfield, CMarie Fuhrman, and Derek Sheffield

Thursday, April 20, 2023 7:00 PM

Gallery One, Ellensburg, WA

Cascadia Field Guide brings together art, poetry, and stories holding scientific, sensory, and cultural knowledge to celebrate and illuminate Cascadia, the diverse ecoregion stretching from Alaska's Price William Sound to Northern California and from the Pacific Coast to the Continental Divide.

This unique book contains 13 communities (from Tidewater Glacier to Shrub-Steppe) and 128 beings (from Geoduck to Cassia Crossbill), offering any reader, local or visitor, a new way of connecting—with heart and mind and body—to place.

Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry 

A reading and celebration with Liz Bradfield, Andrew Gottlieb, CMarie Fuhrman, Maya Jewell Zeller, Justin Gibbens, Jack Johnson, Katharine Whitcomb, and Xavier Cavazos.

 

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Archive

• 2021-2022 Visiting Writers
• 2020-2021 Visiting Writers
• 2019-2020 Visiting Writers
• 2018-2019 Visiting Writers
• 2017-2018 Visiting Writers
• 2016-2017 Visiting Writers
• 2015-2016 Visiting Writers
• 2014-2015 Visiting Writers
• 2013-2014 Visiting Writers
• 2012-2013 Visiting Writers
• 2011-2012 Visiting Writers
• 2010-2011 Visiting Writers