Writers Series brings award-winning authors to GVSU

Authors from around the world will visit Grand Valley State University as part of the 2015-16 Grand Valley Writers Series beginning October 1 with local author Marcia Aldrich.

The Grand Valley Writers Series has a rich history of bringing distinguished and emerging writers to campus to read work, visit classrooms and interact with students.

“The writers have all won awards and together represent diverse voices and perspectives. They are experts in poetry, memoir, fiction and long-form journalism,” said Oindrila Mukherjee, assistant professor of writing and Writers Series coordinator. “The writers represent different genres from different corners of the country. We have made a concerted effort to be inclusive and make sure that America comes to Grand Rapids in all its complexity.”

Below is a full list of scheduled events:

Marcia Aldrich
Thursday, October 1, Allendale Campus
Craft talk: 4-5:15 p.m., Kirkhof Center, room 2215/16
Reading and book signing: 6 p.m., Cook-DeWitt Center
Aldrich, professor of creative writing at Michigan State University, is the former editor of Fourth Genre and author of the memoirs Girl Rearing and Companion to an Untold Story. Her personal essays have been published in Gettysburg Review, North American Review, Witness, Arts & Letters, Northwest Review, Brevity, The Normal School, Kenyon Review, Hotel Amerika and Seneca Review, among others.

Nina McConigley
Tuesday, November 17, Allendale Campus
Craft talk: 2:30-3:45 p.m., Kirkhof Center, room 2215
Reading and book signing: 6 p.m., Cook-DeWitt Center
McConigley is the author of the story collection Cowboys and East Indians, which won the 2014 PEN Open Book Award and a High Plains Book Award. She has been a fellow at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, as well as nominated for a Pushcart Prize for The Best New American Voices. McConigley’s work has appeared in The New York Times, Orion, Salon, Virginia Quarterly Review, American Short Fiction and The Asian Literary Review, among others. She currently teaches at the University of Wyoming and the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers.

Faculty Reading: Glenn Shaheen and Oindrila Mukherjee
Thursday, January 28, Allendale Campus
7:30-8:45 p.m., Cook-DeWitt Center
Shaheen, assistant professor of writing at Grand Valley, is the author of the poetry collection Predatory, which won the 2010 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize. He is also the author of the flash fiction chapbook Unchecked Savagery. His second collection of poetry, Energy Corridor, will be released in 2016. Mukherjee hails from India where she worked as a reporter for the country’s oldest English language newspaper, The Statesman. Her work has been published in Salon, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Oxford Anthology of Bengali Literature, The Greensboro Review, Arts & Letters, The Silk Road Review, The Writer’s Chronicle, Jaggery, and elsewhere.

Rubén Martínez
Wednesday, February 24, Allendale Campus
Craft talk: 4:30-5:45 p.m., Kirkhof Center, room 2263
Reading and book signing: 7-8:15 p.m., Cook-DeWitt Center
Rubén Martínez currently holds the Fletcher Jones Chair in Literature and Writing position at Loyola Marymount University. He also functions as an artist-in-residence at Stanford University’s Institute for Diversity in the Arts. Martínez is the author of Desert America: A Journey Across Our Most Divided Landscape, Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail, The New Americans, and The Other Side: Notes from the New L.A., Mexico City and Beyond. An Emmy award-winning journalist, Martínez hosted and co-wrote the documentary film "When Words Collide" for PBS. His essays, opinions and reports have appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Salon and Village Voice, among others.

Jericho Brown
Monday, March 28, Pew Grand Rapids Campus
Craft talk: 6-7 p.m., DeVos Center, room 203E
Reading and book signing: 7:30-8:45 p.m., DeVos Center, University Club
Brown is the recipient of the Whiting Writers Award and fellowships from the Radcliff Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and the National Endowment for the Arts. His poems have been featured in The New Republic, The New Yorker and The Best American Poetry. Brown’s first book, Please, won the American Book Awards, and his second book, The New Testament, won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. The New Testament was also named one of the best books of the year by Library Journal, Coldfront and the Academy of American Poets. Brown is currently an associate professor of English and creative writing at Emory University.

For more information, contact Oindrila Mukherjee at (616) 331-8034 or [email protected], or visit the Grand Valley Writers Series website.