Creative Writing Program at Penn State

Liberal Arts Research Professor of English and Women's Studies at Penn State, Robin Becker has received fellowships in poetry from the Bunting Institute at Harvard, The Massachusetts Cultural Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2014, The Pitt Poetry Series published her seventh collection, Tiger Heron. Becker writes a column on the national … Continue reading Geffrey Davis/Robin Becker Reading →

A full day of community workshops and readings by recent Penn State MFA graduates: Sarah Blake, Katie Bode-Lang, Rachel Mennies, and William Woolfit, followed by a gala open reading. For more information on each poet and a schedule of the day's events, visit the First Book Fest page on this website.

Stuart Kestenbaum is the author of four collections of poems: Pilgrimage (Coyote Love Press), House of Thanksgiving (Deerbrook Editions), Prayers and Run-on Sentences (Deerbrook Editions), and Only Now (Deerbrook Editions). He has also written The View from Here (Brynmorgen Press), a book of brief essays on craft and community. Kestenbaum has written and spoken widely … Continue reading Poet Stuart Kestenbaum, longtime director of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts →

Mariko Tamaki to accept the 2015 Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize for This One Summer. Mariko and her cousin, artist Jillian Tamaki, also won a Printz Honor (for outstanding young adult literature) and a Caldecott Honor (for exceptional picture book art) for this book. A book sale and signing will follow.

POETRY Night Live, Words@Webster's, featuring Julia Kasdorf and Open Mic! NOTE: This new series replaces the previous First Wednesday Poetry Series here at Webster's.

Vijay Seshadri is the author of three collections of poetry, including 3 Sections, which was awarded the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. The Pulitzer Prize committee praised 3 Sections as: “a compelling collection of poems that examine human consciousness, from birth to dementia, in a voice that is by turns witty and grave, compassionate and remorseless.” His … Continue reading Vijay Seshadri Reading–Mary E. Rolling Reading Series →

An artist, translator, and teacher, Scappettone was born and raised in New York. The recipient of a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2005, she has lived in Italy, Virginia, California, and Chicago. Her collections of poetry are the chapbooks Err-Residence (2007), Beauty (Is the New Absurdity) (2007), and Thing Ode / Ode … Continue reading Poetry Reading by Jennifer Scappetone–CANCELLED →