Celebrated writers of poetry, fiction, and literary non-fiction visit campus several times each year to give lectures, readings, discussions, and book signings. For the Spring 2023 Creative Writers Reading Series, the three visiting writer readings will take place live and in person only.
All events are free and open to the public.
The Creative Writers Reading Series is produced by Penn State Behrend's B.F.A. in Creative Writing degree program with support from the Clarence A. and Eugenie Baumann Smith Fund.
For additional information, visit us on Facebook at Penn State Behrend - BFA Creative Writing.
Spring 2023 Smith Creative Writers Reading Series
Smith Readings begin promptly at 6:00 p.m. (preceded by receptions at 5:30 p.m.).
Nancy Krygowski, poet, will visit Penn State Behrend as part of the Smith Creative Writers Reading Series.
March 30 – Nancy Krygowski, Poetry
Metzgar Lobby
Nancy Krygowski is the author of The Woman in the Corner (University of Pittsburgh Press), named one of the top 100 (or so) books of poetry for 2020 by Library Journal. Her first book, Velocity, won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize. She is a recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship, a Pittsburgh Foundation Grant, and residencies at Jentel, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Foundation, Ragdale, and the Virginia Center of Creative Arts. She is an instructor in Carlow University's Madwomen in the Attic writing program, in addition to serving as Co-Editor of the Pitt Poetry Series.
Rachel Swearingen, author, will visit Penn State Behrend as part of the Smith Creative Writers Reading Series.
April 6 – Rachel Swearingen, Fiction
Metzgar Lobby
Rachel Swearingen's stories and essays have appeared in VICE, The Missouri Review, Kenyon Review, Off Assignment, Agni, American Short Fiction, and others. Her debut story collection, How to Walk on Water, was the winner of the 2018 New American Fiction Prize. She is the recipient of the 2015 Missouri Review Jeffrey E. Smith Editors' Prize in Fiction, a 2012 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award, and the 2011 Mississippi Review Prize in Fiction. In 2019 she was named one of "30 Writers to Watch" by the Guild Literary Complex. She holds a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Ph.D. from Western Michigan University. She currently teaches at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago.
Glenn Taylor, fiction writer, will visit Penn State Behrend as part of the Smith Creative Writers Reading Series.
April 20 – Glenn Taylor, Fiction
Metzgar Lobby
Glenn Taylor's fourth novel, The Songs of Betty Baach, is forthcoming in March 2023. His first novel, The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart, was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award. Glenn's work has appeared in such venues as the Oxford American, The Guardian, Gulf Coast, and Huizache. Born and raised in Huntington, West Virginia, he now resides in Morgantown, where he teaches in the MFA Program at West Virginia University.
Additional Readings
Readings begin promptly at 6:00 p.m.
March 16 – Behrend Reads
Metzgar Lobby
Behrend faculty and staff from across the college read selections from their poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.
April 13 and April 27 – Sweet Sorrow Senior Readings
Metzgar Lobby
Graduating students from the Bachelor of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing read from their work.