Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series to kick off February 18 at CWU

The annual Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series returns to Central Washington University this month, with the first of four nationally recognized authors visiting the Ellensburg campus.

On Wednesday, February 18, novelist David Haynes will deliver a craft talk at noon, followed by a reading and book signing at 5:30 p.m. The series will continue this spring with appearances by poet Elizabeth Bradfield on April 21, creative nonfiction author Nora Wendl on May 5, and novelist Sonora Jha on May 26.

All of the Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series events will take place in the Multicultural Center inside Black Hall and will also be available via Zoom. Questions about the series may be directed to Dr. Candace Walsh in the CWU Department of English at candace.walsh@cwu.edu.

• Attend the February 18 craft talk on Zoom
• Attend the February 18 reading on Zoom

Read on to learn more about our 2026 guests.

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“Among many other things that has changed my life and my work is having the opportunity to meet and interact with so many talented writers.” – David Haynes

DAVID HAYNES has written more than dozen novels and is a Southern Methodist University professor emeritus. He will be reading from his recent book, Martha’s Daughter: A Novella and Stories (McSweeney’s), which was named a Best Book of 2025 by Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. The novella circles a woman’s comically acerbic thoughts following her overbearing mother’s death. Protagonists in the book include a real-life superhero and some long-term residents at a motel.

Haynes also wrote the Penguin Classics coming-of-age novel, Right By My Side. He is the founder and board chair of Kimbilio, a literary organization that champions fiction writers of the African Diaspora. During his craft talk at CWU, he will discuss what it means to cultivate “a life in the arts." "I hope to encourage writers to imagine what is possible for them,” he says.

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“With wildlife, patience and time and quiet is required, a stillness so that things might evolve around you. I think the same is true of writing poems.” – Elizabeth Bradfield

ELIZABETH BRADFIELD is a poet, editor, and naturalist, and will be reading from SOFAR: Poems, Interpretive Work, winner of the Audre Lorde Prize in Lesbian Poetry, and the Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry, winner of a Pacific Northwest Book Award. Bradfield is a former Stegner Fellow and the founder/editor-in-chief of Broadsided, a publishing project that bridges writers and visual artists. In talking about her work, Bradfield shares, “In my poems and in my work as a naturalist, I try to practice deep attention. I strive to recognize, describe, and understand what I see/hear/experience and also pause to ask what unexpected and genuinely illuminating connections can be made from that attention.”

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“Writing architectural history, as a memoir, changed how I've thought about time, history, and our responsibility to the future.” – Nora Wendl

NORA WENDL is a creative writer, artist, and associate professor of Architecture at the University of New Mexico. She will be reading from her hybrid memoir and architectural history work, Almost Nothing: Reclaiming Edith Farnsworth, shortlisted for the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize. In the book, Wendl retells the story of Farnsworth’s complicated collaboration with iconic architect Mies van der Rohe on her floating glass country retreat, which became an architectural treasure and museum. The book restores Farnsworth’s role, formerly diminished in sexist historical accounts. Wendl shares, “I'm looking forward to sharing Almost Nothing with you and speaking about the obstacles and adventures that come along with the territory of rewriting history.”  

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“When I write, I feel like I have lived three times as much, three more days than were my share.” – Sonora Jha

SONORA JHA is an author and professor at Seattle University who will be reading from her latest novel, Intemperance, described as “a middle-aged woman starts a firestorm when she holds a contest based on an ancient Indian ritual, in which men must compete to win her affections” (Electric Lit). The book was named a Best Book of 2025 by Library Journal, the Chicago Review of Books, and others. Her campus novel, The Laughter, was named on of the Best Books of 2023 by The New Yorker and National Public Radio (NPR). Jha also wrote the memoir, How to Raise a Feminist Son, and she looks forward to “talking about some elements of craft that help me get lost in the story I'm writing: voice, character, and the risks people are taking.” She plans to share her thoughts on “how writers may follow their instincts, research their stories, and make way for the surprise.”