��ý Center for Writers

Creative Writing Events

Spring 2025:
	Common Ground Reading Friday, January 24, 6pm - 7:30pm The Jay S. & Jeanne Benet Alumni Lounge, Old O'Connor Hall Join the Common Ground reading series to experience live readings by undergraduate & graduate student writers.
	Alumni Reading with Nathan Lipps and Leah Umansky Wednesday, February 12, 6pm - 8pm The Jay S. & Jeanne Benet Alumni Lounge, Old O’Connor Hall Nathan Lipps is the author of Built Around the Fire and the chapbook the Body as Passage. Born and raised along the rural coast of western Michigan, he currently lives in Ohio and works as an Assistant Professor at Central State University. His work has been published in the Best New Poets, Colorado Review, Cleaver, EcoTheo Review, North American Review, and elsewhere. Leah Umansky is the author of three collections, including her most recent book, Of Tyrant (Word Works Books, 2024). She earned her MFA in Poetry at Sarah Lawrence College and has curated and hosted the COUPLET Reading Series in New York City since 2011. Her creative work has been featured in The American Poetry Review, The New York Times, Poem-a-Day from the Academy of American Poets, Poetry magazine, and elsewhere.
	A Reading and Conversation with Wendy Wimmer Tuesday, February 18, 6pm - 8pm The Jay S. & Jeanne Benet Alumni Lounge, Old O’Connor Hall Wendy Wimmer is the author of Entry Level, a story collection that received the 2021 Autumn House Fiction Prize. The Washington Post called it one of the short story collections worth reading for Fall 2022, and People magazine called it “gleefully subversive.” The book was also named to Kirkus Reviews’ Best Indie Short Fiction list for 2022 and was an honoree for the Society of Midland Authors 2023 Book Awards. Wimmer’s novel, The Doomscroller’s Companion, is forthcoming from the University of Wisconsin Press in Fall 2026. She lives in Wisconsin.
	Common Ground Reading Friday, February 28, 6pm - 7:30pm The Jay S. & Jeanne Benet Alumni Lounge, Old O'Connor Hall Join the Common Ground reading series to experience live readings by undergraduate & graduate student writers.
	Distinguished Writers Series with Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi Thursday, March 6, 6pm - 8pm Old Champlain Hall, Atrium Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi is an American novelist and nonfiction writer. The author of Savage Tongues, Call Me Zebra, and Fra Keeler, Oloomi has received a Whiting Award and a National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" award and is the 2023-2024 Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Fiction Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard University. Born in Los Angeles, she spent her childhood in Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and Spain, and she speaks Farsi, Italian, and Spanish. Oloomi is the Dorothy G. Griffin College Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame.
	Coffee & Conversation with Creative Writing Program Director Tina Chang Wednesday, March 12, 11am - 12pm CEMERS Conference Room (LN 1128) Have a creative idea you’d like to place forward? Something you’d like to oversee and run? Something you’re excited to see take shape? Ideas for future Coffee & Conversation topics? A suggestion box will be available for anything you’d like to share. Beverages and lunch boxes served.
	A Reading and Conversation with Chris Abani Wednesday, April 9, 6pm - 8pm Old Champlain Hall, Atrium In a special collaboration with the Human Rights Institute, the Creative Writing Program welcomes novelist, poet, essayist, playwright, and screenwriter Chris Abani. He is the author of the poetry collections Smoking the Bible and Sanctificum, the novels Song for Night and GraceLand, and the essay collection The Face, among many other books. His work has been translated into French, Italian, Spanish, German, Swedish, Romanian, Hebrew, Macedonian, Ukrainian, Portuguese, Dutch, Bosnian, and Serbian. Through his TED Talks and other public speaking, Abani is known as an international voice on humanitarianism, art, ethics, and our shared political responsibility.
	Common Ground Reading Friday, April 25, 6pm - 7:30pm The Jay S. & Jeanne Benet Alumni Lounge, Old O'Connor Hall Join the Common Ground reading series to experience live readings by undergraduate & graduate student writers.
Fall 2024:
	Coffee & Conversation with Creative Writing Director Tina Chang and Associate Director Jen DeGregorio Wednesday, August 28, 11am - 12pm CEMERS Conference Room (LN 1128) Graduate students in Creative Writing, join us for an informal conversation with Director of Creative Writing, Tina Chang, as we get to know new Associate Director of Creative Writing, Jen DeGregorio. We will also welcome our new students and hold a suggestion box for all creative ideas for the year. Coffee, tea, and food served (including vegan options).
	Common Ground Reading Series Friday, September 20, 6pm - 7:30pm The Jay S. & Jeanne Benet Alumni Lounge, Old O'Connor Hall Join the Common Ground reading series to experience live readings from undergraduate & graduate student writers.
	The Field Exam: Planning and Completing Your Exams Wednesday, September 25, 11am - 12pm LN1128 Cemers Conference Room Associate Director of Creative Writing Jen DeGregorio reviews the field exam, offering a personal perspective on how she conceptualized, planned, and completed three exams in four years. She will answer any questions you may have on this crucial step toward earning your doctorate and how it can contribute in a meaningful way to your creative work and dissertation.
	A Reading with Poet Eugenia Leigh Wednesday, October 9, 6pm - 8pm The Jay S. & Jeanne Benet Alumni Lounge, Old O'Connor Hall Eugenia Leigh is a Korean American poet and the author of two collections of poetry, Bianca (Four Way Books, March 2023) and Blood, Sparrows and Sparrows (Four Way Books, 2014), winner of the Late Night Library's 2015 Debut-litzer Prize in Poetry selected by Arisa White as well as a finalist for both the National Poetry Series and the Yale Series of Younger Poets. Her poems and essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The Nation, Guernica, Poetry, Ploughshares, Poetry Northwest, Tahoma Literary Review, The Massachusetts Review, Waxwing, the Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day, the Best New Poets anthology, the Best of the Net anthology, and elsewhere. Poems from Bianca were awarded Poetry magazine's 2021 Bess Hokin Prize and received Special Mention in the 2023 Pushcart Prize Anthology.
	The Fulbright Program: A Path for Creative Writers Wednesday, October 30, 11am - 12pm CEMERS Conference Room (LN 1128) Professor Thomas Glave, a two-time Fulbright Scholar (Jamaica, 1998-99; the UK, 2021-22), offers advice on the application process, the benefits of the Fulbright for creative writers, and discusses his personal experience in the program.
	Common Ground Reading Wednesday, November 8, 6pm - 7:30pm The Jay S. & Jeanne Benet Alumni Lounge, Old O'Connor Hall Join the Common Ground reading series to experience live readings from undergraduate & graduate writers.
	Distinguished Writers Series with Curtis Chin Wednesday, November 13, 6pm - 8pm The Jay S. & Jeanne Benet Alumni Lounge, Old O'Connor Hall The Jay S. & Jeanne Benet Alumni Lounge, Old O’Connor Hall Curtis Chin is the author of Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant (Little, Brown, 2023). A cofounder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop in New York City, Chin served as the nonprofit’s first Executive Director. He went on to write for network and cable television before transitioning to social-justice documentaries. Chin has screened his films at over six hundred venues in twenty countries.
	The ��ý Writers Project: A Feast of WordsSunday, November 24, 12pm - 2:30pm ��ý Downtown Center 67 Washington Street, ��ý, NY A Feast of Words includes a community poetry workshop led by PhD students Sam Corradetti and Matthew Midgett, an open mic hosted by PhD candidate Jordan Franklin, a book raffle, and reception. This event is free and open to the public.