Creative Writing Program at Penn State

Suki Kim is the only writer ever to go live undercover in North Korea. Her New York Times bestselling book of investigative literary nonfiction, Without You, There Is No Us: Undercover Among the Sons of North Korean Elite documents the final year of the Kim Jong-il regime and the psychology of its future leadership. An investigative journalist and a … Continue reading Suki Kim Reading, Rolling Reading Series →

Jennifer Haigh’s novel HEAT AND LIGHT was named a Best Book of 2016 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, and Slate Magazine, and has received a 2017 Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her previous books — News from Heaven, Faith, The Condition, Baker … Continue reading Jennifer Haigh Reading, Rolling Reading Series →

Cindy Clem, author of the chapbook Cat/Dog and Other Binaries, received her MFA in Poetry from Penn State University in 2005. Her work has appeared in journals such as The Normal School, Mid-American Review, Prairie Schooner, Michigan Quarterly Review, Memoir (and), and Superstition Review. Visit her website, www.cindyclem.net, to read more of her work. Cindy is a graduate of Penn State's … Continue reading Cindy Clem Reading, Art of Poetry Series →

Originally from Jamaica, Shara McCallum is the author of five books of poetry, published in the US and UK: Madwoman, The Face of Water: New and Selected Poems, This Strange Land, Song of Thieves, and The Water Between Us. Her poems have appeared in literary magazines, anthologies, and textbooks in the US, UK, and other … Continue reading Shara McCallum Reading, Rolling Reading Series →

RESCHEDULED AFTER SNOW DAY 2/7: Poet Andi Stout hails from from Belington, WV, and teaches writing in Penn State's English Department.  Her first book, Tiny Horses Don’t Get A Choice, is set in contemporary Appalachia and explores regional challenges such as environmental crisis, threats to home and family, politics and struggle, and migration and education.

Mary Gaitskill is the author of the novels Two Girls, Fat and Thin, Veronica, and The Mare.  She has also written three story collections: Bad Behavior, Because They Wanted To, and Don't Cry.  Her stories and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Granta, Best American Short Stories, and The O. Henry Prize Stories.  … Continue reading Mary Gaitskill Reading, Fisher Family Writer in Residence →

Gabeba Baderoon is the author of several poetry collections including A Hundred Silences, which was a finalist for the University of Johannesburg Prize and the Olive Schreiner Award, The Dream in the Next Body, and Silence Before Speaking. She received the DaimlerChrysler Award for South African Poetry, and is currently an associate professor of Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies and … Continue reading Gabeba Baderoon Reading, Art of Poetry Series →

Sunil Yapa’s first novel Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist (2016) found its way onto many “best” lists, including  Time Magazine’s Best Books of the Year, Amazon Best Books of the Year, Barnes & Noble’s Discover Great New Writers , and American Booksellers January 2016 Indie Next Great Reads. The biracial son of … Continue reading Sunil Yapa Reading, Rolling Reading Series →

Four Pennsylvania poets have been chosen to represent the Pennsylvania Center for the Book’s 2018 Public Poetry Poster series. Jen Ashburn, Thomas Devaney, Dawn Lundy Martin and Marci Nelligan were selected to read their work as part of “An Evening of Pennsylvania Poets: Readings in Celebration of the Public Poetry Project” at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March … Continue reading An Evening of Pennsylvania Poets: Readings in Celebration of the Public Poetry Project →