Among the hundreds of writers Wells has hosted over the years, many have been top figures in their field who have won such prestigious awards as the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. One (the Russian poet Joseph Brodsky) was even a Nobel Prize winner. Yet, the Visiting Writers Series selects only those writers who can bring something special to the close-knit Wells community, which has had its continuously growing share of ambitious and committed undergraduate writers.
Visiting writers are frequently editors and publishers, or are involved in graduate writing programs, and all have wide publishing experience, so they can help students learn about practical matters relating to the literary scene and publishing in addition to providing hands-on advice and criticism. Sometimes there are group readings by editors and writers representing journals, such as The Healing Muse and Stone Canoe, and by publishers, such as Michael Czarnecki of FootHills Publishing, enabling students to gain exposure to the vital work being done all over the country by small presses and literary magazines.
Public Reading and Book Launch ~ Thursday, Feb. 7, 6:30 p.m., Faculty Parlors (Main Building)
Public Master Class: "The Sensationally Short Poem" ~ Friday, Feb. 8, 12:30 p.m., Faculty Parlors (Main Building)
Kimiko Hahn is the author of nine books of poems, including Brain Fever (2014) and Toxic Flora (2010), both collections prompted by science, and The Narrow Road to the Interior (2006), a collection that takes its title from Basho's famous poetic journal. Hahn, who has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, PEN/Voelcker Award and Shelley Memorial Prize, among other honors, is president of the board of the Poetry Society of America and distinguished professor in the MFA program in creative writing and literary translation at Queens College (CUNY). Come help celebrate the release of her newest chapbook, (Write It!), published by Wells College Press!
Public Master Class: "On Sestinas and Stories: Writing across Genres" ~ Tuesday, Feb. 26, 5:30 p.m., Faculty Parlors (Main Building)
Public Reading ~ Tuesday, Feb. 26, 7:30 p.m., Art Exhibit Room (Macmillan Hall)
The author of ten books, David Lloyd’s published fiction includes Boys: Stories and a Novella (2004); the 2013 novel, Over the Line; and a new story collection, The Moving of the Water. His poetry collections include Warriors (2012), The Gospel According to Frank (2009), and The Everyday Apocalypse (2002). In 2001, he was a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at Bangor University, Wales. He currently directs the creative writing program at Le Moyne College.
Public Master Class: "Writing Other People's Lives" ~ Wednesday, April 10, 12:30 p.m., Faculty Parlors (Main Building)
Public Reading ~ Wednesday, April 10, 6:30 p.m., Art Exhibit Room (Macmillan Hall)
Leslie Jamison’s collection of essays, The Empathy Exams, won the 2012 Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize and was named one of the best books of the year by NPR, the New York Times and Publishers Weekly. Leslie’s articles, essays and fiction have appeared in Harper’s, The Believer and the Times. Stephen King praised her 2018 book about addiction and the recovery movement, The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath, as “an honest and important book.” Jamison is an assistant professor and the director of the nonfiction concentration at Columbia University’s MFA program.
For each visiting writer, the Book Arts Center and Press collaborates with Wells' English department to prepare a handmade broadside of the writer's work. View previous broadsides available for purchase here.
