Faculty authors to discuss their craft and careers during annual Writers Series

Two Grand Valley State University writing professors will discuss the inner-workings of their creativity and craft during the annual Grand Valley Writers Series.

Patricia Clark and Roger Gilles will present a faculty reading on Wednesday, February 7, from 6-7:30 p.m. in the Cook-DeWitt Center, located on the Allendale Campus. Readings will be followed by a book signing.

Clark, who also served as Grand Valley's Poet-in-Residence since 1998, is the author of five volumes of poetry, including The Canopy (2017) and Sunday Rising (2013). She has also published three chapbooks: Wreath for the Red Admiral, Given the Trees, and Deadlifts. Her work has been featured on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily, and has appeared in The Atlantic and Gettysburg Review, among other publications. Awards for her work include a Creative Artist Grant in Michigan, the Mississippi Review Prize, the Gwendolyn Brooks Prize, and being named co-winner of the Lucille Medwick Prize from the Poetry Society of America. From 2005-2007, she served as the poet laureate of Grand Rapids.

Gilles, who currently serves as the interim director of the Frederik Meijer Honors College, is the author of Women on the Move: The Forgotten Era of Women's Bicycle Racing. For 20 years, his scholarly work has focused on issues relating to writing program administration, primarily placement and assessment. With Dan Royer, professor of writing at Grand Valley, Gilles co-authored Directed Self-Placement: An Attitude of Orientation (1998), which led to the publication of their co-edited volume Directed Self-Placement: Principles and Practices (2003). Royer and Gilles contributed chapters to several volumes in A Field of Dreams: Independent Writing Programs and the Future of Composition Studies (2002), including "The Origins of the Department of Academic, Creative, and Professional Writing at Grand Valley State University."

The Grand Valley Writers Series will offer two additional events this winter season:

Nonfiction Craft Talk and Reading with Robert Long Foreman
Monday, March 12
Craft talk: 4:30-5:45 p.m., Kirkhof Center, room 2270
Reading and book signing: 6-7:30 p.m., Cook-DeWitt Center

Poetry Craft Talk and Reading with Maggie Smith
Thursday, April 12
Craft talk: 10-11:15 a.m., Kirkhof Center, room 2266
Reading and book signing: 1-2:15 p.m., Kirkhof Center, room 2270

For more information about the Grand Valley Writers Series, contact Todd Kaneko, series coordinator, at [email protected], or visit gvsu.edu/writing.