Creative Writers Reading Series
Smith Creative Writers Reading Series
Celebrated writers of poetry, fiction, and literary non-fiction visit campus several times each year to give lectures, readings, discussions, and book signings. Visiting author readings are held at 6:00 p.m. (preceded by receptions at 5:30 p.m.) in the Smith Chapel. All events are free and open to the public. Presented with the support of the Clarence A. and Eugenie Baumann Smith Fund.
February 22 - Behrend Reads
Join faculty and staff as they read from their creative work. Featuring: Nathan Carter, Elizabeth Fogle, George Looney, Kristy McCoy, Tom Noyes, Aimee Pogson & Evan Ringle. Reading will take place at 6:00 p.m. in Smith Chapel.
March 29 – Melissa Fraterrigo, Fiction Writer
Author Melissa Fraterrigo
Melissa Fraterrigo is the author of the novel Glory Days (University of Nebraska Press) and the short story collection The Longest Pregnancy (Livingston Press). Her fiction and non-fiction have appeared in more than forty literary journals and anthologies from Shenandoah and The Massachusetts Review to storySouth, Notre Dame Review, and Prairie Schooner. She has been a finalist for awards from Glimmer Train on multiple occasions, twice nominated for Pushcart Awards, and was the winner of the Sam Adams/Zoetrope: All Story Short Fiction Contest. She is founder and executive director of the Lafayette Writers Studio, in Lafayette, IN, where she also teaches classes on the art and craft of writing.
David Baker, Poet (Rescheduled for Spring 2019)
Author David Baker
David Baker is author of twelve books of poetry, most recently Swift: New and Selected Poems (forthcoming, W. W. Norton), Scavenger Loop (2015, Norton) and Never-Ending Birds (Norton), which won the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize in 2011. His six books of prose include Show Me Your Environment: Essays on Poetry, Poets, and Poems (Michigan, 2014) and, with Ann Townsend, Radiant Lyre: Essays on Lyric Poetry (Graywolf, 2007). Among his awards are prizes and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Poetry Society of America, and Society of Midland Authors. He holds the Thomas B. Fordham Chair at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, and is Poetry Editor of The Kenyon Review.
April 12 – Karen Craigo, Poet
Author Karen Craigo
Karen Craigo is the author of the poetry collections No More Milk (Sundress, 2016) and Passing Through Humansville (Sundress, forthcoming in 2018). She also has a new chapbook, Escaped Housewife Tries Hard to Blend In (Hermeneutic Chaos, 2016). She maintains Better View of the Moon, a blog on writing, editing, and creativity, and she teaches writing in Springfield, Missouri. She is the nonfiction editor and former editor-in-chief of Mid-American Review, as well as the interviews editor of SmokeLong Quarterly.
April 19 & 26 – Sweet Sorrow Reading
Graduating Students read from their BFA theses. Reading will take place at 6:00 p.m. in Smith Chapel.
Previous Visiting Authors
Previous visiting authors have included: Corey Zeller, Al Maginnes, John Gallaher, Wendell Mayo, Lia Purpura, Paisley Rekdal, Caitlin Horrocks, Robert Michael Pyle, Alice Friman, John Minichillo, Laura Kaschsiske, Thom Conroy, Sarah Gerkensmeyer, Heather Slomski, Elizabeth Kadetsky, Katie Ford, Michael Byers, Charles Baxter, and many more.
