Feb. 10, 2020
Award winning writer Elissa Washuta to read in the Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series
Central Washington University will host nonfiction writer Elissa Washuta for a public reading on March 10 at 6 p.m. in the Brooks Library Second Floor Commons. Her appearance is part of the annual Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series.
Washuta is a member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and an assistant professor of creative writing at Ohio State University. She will be reading from different works, including the essay anthology Shapes of Native Nonfiction, which she co-edited with Theresa Warburton.
Following the reading, there will be books for purchase offered by the Wildcat Shop.
Washuta will also give a craft talk on creative nonfiction and navigating the writing life, at 12 p.m. in the Brooks Library Second Floor Commons. All of her events are free and open to the public.
“Shapes of Native Nonfiction is exciting, fresh, and profound,” noted Tommy Pico, author of Feed, Junk, and Nature Poem. “It provides the space for native nonfiction to be indigenous, without the pressure to ‘perform’ indigeneity. The writing gets to be weird, joyful, wounded, flip, deep, unflinching, terrified, and secure. Expression over cultural expectation. I turn to it and return to it, delighted each time."
Washuta also authored Starvation Mode and My Body is a Book of Rules, which was named a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Capital, Artist Trust, 4Culture, and the Potlatch Fund.
Washuta’s appearance is sponsored by the College of Arts and Humanities, the Department of English, Brooks Library, Diversity and Equity Center, Multimodal Education Center, Karen Gookin, and the Wildcat Shop.
For more information, contact Maya Zeller in the CWU English Department, Maya.Zeller@cwu.edu, 509-963-1546.