Lion Rock Visiting Writers 2026-2027
Maya Jewell Zeller
Tuesday, October 6, 2026
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. PST – Craft/Process Talk: “The Mysteries of Mycelium and Book Making” and Q&A (book signing to follow)
CWU Brooks Library Attic Space (in-person only)
5:30 p.m. - 6:45 p.m. PST – Reading: Raised by Ferns memoir-in-essays, and Q&A (book signing to follow)
NAC Atrium (in-person only)
Wednesday, October 7, 2026
2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. PST - “Multigenre Paths to Publishing” Talk and Q&A (Zoom-only)
Register here to join this event via Zoom
CWU creative writing Professor Maya Jewell Zeller is an award-winning multi-genre author. Her recent books include the memoir-in-essays Raised by Ferns; an illustrated nonfiction book, The Wonder of Mushrooms; several poetry collections (including out takes/ glove box (New American Press, winner of the 2022 New American Poetry Prize) and an advanced poetry craft guide (co-authored with Kathryn Nuernberger) Advanced Poetry: A Writer’s Guide and Anthology (Bloomsbury, 2024). Maya’s prose appears widely, and her essay, “Scavenger Panorama,” was honored by Vivian Gornick as a Notable in Best American Essays 2023. Recipient of fellowships from University of Oxford, Washington State Artist Trust, The Sustainable Arts Foundation, and the HJ Andrews Experimental Research Forest, Jewell Zeller is currently Coordinator of the Professional and Creative Writing Programs at CWU and has been recognized as University Distinguished Faculty of Scholarship and Artistic Accomplishment. Learn more at mayajewellzeller.com.
Carlos Andrés Gomez
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. PST – Craft Talk: “The Radical Power of Autobiographical Narrative” and Q&A (book signing to follow)
CWU Brooks Library Attic Space (in-person only)
2:30 – 3:30 p.m. PST – Craft Talk and Reading (Zoom-only)
Register here to join this event via Zoom
5:30 p.m. – 6:45 p.m. – Reading: Poetry collections Fractures and Patrilineation (bilingual), and Q&A (book signing to follow)
NAC Atrium (in-person only)
Carlos Andrés Gómez is a Colombian American poet from New York City. His poetry collection Fractures (University of Wisconsin Press, 2020) was selected by Pulitzer Prize winner and 19th U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey as the winner of the Felix Pollak Prize. Winner of the Foreword INDIES Gold Medal and the International Book Award for poetry, Gómez has been published in Poetry magazine, The Nation, New England Review, Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day series, The Yale Review, BuzzFeed Reader, Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World (W. W. Norton, 2022), and elsewhere. Carlos is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. He can be found @CarlosAGLive or CarlosLive.com.
CWU News
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