Lion Rock Visiting Writers 2025-2026
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.
Candace Walsh
Thursday, November 6th, 2025
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. PST - Craft Talk: "Re-Use, Reflect, Regenerate"
CWU Brooks Library 2nd Floor Student Commons or via Zoom
Register here to join this event via Zoom
5:45 p.m. - 6:45 p.m. PST - Reading: Poetry and Prose (book signing to follow)
With an introduction by Dr. Anne Cubilié
and a reading by CWU graduate student Emily Kirpach
CWU Brooks Library 2nd Floor Student Commons
Register here to join this event via Zoom
Candace Walsh is an assistant professor of creative writing at Central Washington University. She holds a PhD in fiction from Ohio University and an MFA in fiction from Warren Wilson College. She was the summer 2025 Alumni Fellow at Warren Wilson College’s MFA residency. Her poetry chapbook, Iridescent Pigeons, was released by Yellow Arrow Publishing in July 2024. Her poem “Wild and Frail and Beautiful” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2024. Recent publication credits include The Greensboro Review, Passengers Journal, and Leon Literary Review (fiction); Trampset, California Quarterly, Sinister Wisdom, Vagabond City Lit, and HAD (poetry); and The Ekphrastic Review (forthcoming), March Danceness, New Limestone Review, and Pigeon Pages (creative nonfiction). Her craft and pedagogical essays and book reviews have appeared in Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, Brevity, Craft Literary, descant, and Fiction Writers Review. She proposed and moderated an AWP panel on the braided essay as a social justice action with panelists Nicole Walker, Anna Chotlos, and Sarah Minor. At Ohio University, she co-edited Quarter After Eight literary journal for three years, founded and produced the QAE Reading Series, and coordinated the English department’s Visiting Writers program. Two of the essay anthologies she co-edited were Lambda Literary Award finalists: Dear John, I Love Jane, and Greetings from Janeland.
Learn more about Candace on her website.
Fall Student Reading
Wednesday, November 19th, 2025
5:30-8:15 p.m. PST
Via Zoom
This event is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate our peers' creativity and effort while enjoying their engaging stories, poems, and essays. 
David Haynes
Wednesday, February 18, 2026
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. PST - Craft Talk
CWU Black Hall, Multicultural Center's Multipurpose Room or via Zoom
Please register in advance to join this event via Zoom
5:30 p.m. PST - Reading
CWU Black Hall, Multicultural Center's Multipurpose Room or via Zoom
Please register in advance to join this event via Zoom
David Haynes is the author of seven novels for adults and five books for younger readers. He is an emeritus professor of English at Southern Methodist University, where he directed the creative writing program for ten years. Between 1996 and 2024 he taught regularly in MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, and has also taught writing at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Hamline University, at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD, and at the Writers’ Garret in Dallas. In 2023, Penguin Classics published the 30th anniversary edition of his first novel, RIGHT BY MY SIDE. His most recent book, MARTHA’S DAUGHTER: A NOVELLA AND STORIES, was published by McSweeney’s in the fall of 2025. It was named a Best Book of 2025 by Publisher's Weekly and Kirkus Reviews.
David Haynes is a member of the Board of Directors of Kimbilio, a community of writers and scholars committed to developing, empowering and sustaining fiction writers from the African diaspora and their stories. He currently serves as the Chair of their board.
CWU News
$4 million federal grant aimed at helping with school psychologist shortage
February 25, 2026 by Marketing and Communications
CWU Disability Services aims to provide equitable access to education
February 23, 2026 by Rune Torgersen