Lion Rock Visiting Writers 2024-2025

Academics
English
Lion Rock Writer's Series
Lion Rock Visiting Writers 2024-2025

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, Jerrol's, and Gallery One.

Faculty Reading – Works-in-progress

Tuesday, October 22nd, 2024
5:00–6:30 p.m. PST
Samuelson 129 or via Zoom

Featuring Xavier Cavazos, Seanse Ducken, Karen Gookin, Lisa Norris, Ali A. Ünal, Katharine Whitcomb

Xavier Cavazos poster and bio: He is the author of Diamond Glove Slave Tree, the inaugural Prairie Seed Poetry Prize from Ice Cube Press and Barbarian at the Gate.

Seanse Ducken poster and bio: Her poetry has appeared in Ecotone, New Limestone Review, Windfall and Noble/Gas Qtrly. At CWU, she teaches courses in creative writing, poetry and poetics.

Karen Gookin poster and bio: In 2013 Karen retired from the CWU English department after 29 years of teaching. Late last year The Poetry Box published her collection of Montana poems, The Hills Around Are Dust and Light.

Lisa Norris poster and bio: She is a professor emeritus of English at CWU. Her poems and nonfiction have appeared in Shenandoah, Ascent, Fourth Genre, Terrain.Org, Bullets Into Bells, Willow Springs, and others.

Ali A. Ünal poster and bio: He is a fiction writer from Turkey. He teaches fiction and nonfiction classes in the English Department.

Katharine Whitcomb poster and bio: The author of three full-length poetry, Kathy is Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing in the English Department.

Fall Student Reading: Emergence

Tuesday, November 12th, 2024
5:00–6:30 p.m. PST
Via Zoom

Featuring fiction, poetry, non-fiction, hybrid works by English Department students

LGBTQIA+ Community Poetry Night

Friday, November 22nd, 2024
6:00–8:00 p.m. PST
Gallery One
Must RSVP - Limited Seats

In collaboration with Kittitas County Pride. Hosted by Taneum Bambrick.

Lion Rock and CWU Libraries present Banned Books

Thursday, January 23rd, 2025
5:00–7:00 p.m. PST
Brooks Library 2nd Floor Commons or via Zoom

Readings and a celebration of the freedom to read, access to information, and freedom of expression.

Marcelo Hernandez Castillo

Thursday, February 13th, 2025

In collaboration with Student Engagement & Success and El Centro Latino & Latin American Studies Program

12:00p.m. PST Craft Talk
CWU Brooks Library 2nd Floor Student Commons or via Zoom

6:00p.m. PST Reading - Followed by book signing
CWU Brooks Library 2nd Floor Student Commons or via Zoom

Portrait of Marcello Hernandez Castillo and book cover

Marcelo Hernandez Castillo is the author of Children of the Land: a Memoir (Harper Collins); Cenzontle (BOA Editions), winner of the A. Poulin, Jr. prize; Dulce (Northwestern University Press), winner of the Drinking Gourd Prize; and, most recently, he is the co-editor of the anthology Here to Stay: Poetry and Prose from the Undocumented Diaspora (Harper Perennial). He is the 2025 guest editor of the Michigan Quarterly Review and has also curated the Academy of American Poet’s Poem-A-Day Series. His work has been long listed for the California Book Award, the Foreword Indies Prize, and the Lambda Literary Award, among other recognitions. He was the first undocumented student to graduate from the Helen Zell Writers Program at the University of Michigan and co-founded the Undocupoets, which eliminated citizenship requirements from all major poetry book prizes in the U.S., and for which he was recognized with the Barnes and Noble Writers for Writers award. He served as distinguished fellow for the Marshall Project’s Art For Justice initiative from the University of Arizona which advocates for prison reform and is an inaugural recipient of the Writing Freedom Fellowship from Haymarket Books and the Mellon Foundation. He currently serves as faculty in the MFA program at St. Mary’s College of California and at Ashland University’s Low-Res MFA program.

Winter Student Reading - Magic & Marvel

Tuesday, March 4th, 2025
5:00-6:30p.m. PST
via Zoom

Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series welcomes you all to the final event of the quarter, Magic & Marvel. As an extension of the Manastash, Volume 35. theme Invisible Worlds, we are setting the virtual stage to express Magical Realism and current events through the lens of progressive writers.

Our goal is to encourage student writers to reach outside of traditional writing guidelines and discover imaginative ways to express current events. This style of writing produces a creative outlet for writing beyond the technical and creating art with authentic expression. Please join us for an evening of marvel and intrigue.

Jesse Lee Kercheval – Graphic Novels

Thursday, April 10th, 2025
5:00-6:00p.m. PST
via Zoom

Front Cover of French Girl written by Jesse Lee Kercheval

Jesse Lee Kercheval is a poet, writer, graphic artist and translator. Her most recent the poetry collections are I Want to Tell You (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2023), Un pez dorado no te sirve para nada (Editorial Yaugurú, Uruguay, 2023) and and America that island off the coast of France (Tupelo Books, 2019), winner of the Dorset Prize. She is also the author of three short story collections: Underground Women; The Alice Stories, winner of the Prairie Schooner Fiction Book Award; and Dogeater, winner of the AWP Award in Short Fiction, as well as the novels The Museum of Happiness and My Life as a Silent Movie, and the memoir Space, winner of the Alex Award from the American Library Association. Her translations include Love Poems by Idea Vilariño and The Invisible Bridge: Selected Poems of Circe Maia, for which she was awarded an NEA in Translation, both published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Her most recent book is the graphic memoir, French Girl (Fieldmouse Press, 2024). She is the Zona Gale Professor Emerita of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Editor of the Wisconsin Poetry Series at the University of Wisconsin Press.

Elaina Ellis – “From Poetry to Romance—Editing Across Genres”

Thursday, May 1st, 2025

12:00-1:00p.m. PST Craft/Editing Talk
CWU Brooks Library, 2nd Floor Student Commons or via Zoom

5:00-6:00p.m. PST Reading
CWU Brooks Library, 2nd Floor Student Commons

Book cover of Someplace Generous written by Elaina Ellis and Amber Flame

Elaina Ellis (she/her) is publisher and cofounder at Generous Press, a new romance fiction book imprint. She owns and operates A Trusted Reader, providing literary book editing services for brilliant writers of all stripes. For ten years she worked at the Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry publishing house Copper Canyon Press where she served as editor. She is the author of Write About an Empty Birdcage, and has received support from Artist Trust, Mineral School, Vermont Studio Center, Jack Straw, Tent, 4Culture, and Seattle Office of Arts & Culture.

Visit Elaina Ellis' website. Find her on Instagram @generouspress and @atrustedreader.