Creative Writing Program at Penn State

James Charlesworth’s first novel, The Patricide of George Benjamin Hill, was published in 2019. He is a frequent contributor of music-related essays for marchxness.com, and his short fiction has appeared in Natural Bridge and was a finalist in Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award for New Writers. James is a member of the Advisory Board of the Writers Association of Northern … Continue reading Alums Leah Huizar and James Charlesworth Kick Off 2021-22 Rolling Reading Series →

Join English students and faculty across the state for an informal interview and Q&A with 2021-22 Penn State Laureate Shara McCallum. Register in advance for this webinar at https://psu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_8sudwOktRsOrUtblK1vj3w Visit the Penn State Laureate page for more information, including latest news and upcoming events. During her year as Laureate, in addition to events around the … Continue reading Shara McCallum, Penn State Laureate, 2021-22 Virtual Kick-Off →

Alicia Ostriker will give a reading as the 2021 Emily Dickinson Lecturer, an annual event sponsored by Penn State alumni George and Barbara Kelly, the Penn State English Department, and the College of the Liberal Arts. This will be a VIRTUAL event, presented as a webinar on Zoom. Advance registration for this virtual event is … Continue reading 2021 Emily Dickinson Lecture: Alicia Ostriker →

Alissa Nutting is the author of the story collection Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls, as well as the novels Tampa and Made for Love. A television series based on Made for Love, co-written and produced by Nutting, premiered on HBO Max in April 2021. She is an assistant professor of English at Grinnell College in Iowa.   This is a virtual event to be presented via Zoom webinar. Register here.   

Elizabeth Kadetsky’s The Memory Eaters was named among “great books from small presses to read now” by Buzzfeed during the COVID pandemic, and was featured in the Boston Globe, The Rumpus, She Reads, and elsewhere. She is the author of the memoir First There is a Mountain (Dzanc Books rEprint series, 2019; and Little Brown, 2004), the novella On the Island at the Center of the Center of the World (Nouvella, 2015), and the short … Continue reading Rolling Reading Series Presents Elizabeth Kadetsky, 7 PM →

From Jamaica, and born to a Jamaican father and Venezuelan mother, Shara McCallum is the author of six books published in the US & UK, including No Ruined Stone. McCallum’s poems and essays have appeared in journals, anthologies, and textbooks throughout the US, Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, and Israel. La historia es un cuarto/History is a Room, an anthology of poems selected from … Continue reading VIRTUAL EVENT: Rolling Reading Series Presents Poet & Penn State Laureate Shara McCallum →

Grace Talusan is the author of the memoir, The Body Papers, a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection, the winner in nonfiction for the Massachusetts Book Awards, and the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing. Her short story, "The Book of Life and Death," was chosen for the 2020 Boston Book Festival's One City One Story program and was … Continue reading Rolling Reading Series Presents Nonfiction Writer Grace Talusan →

Paisley Rekdal is the author of a book of essays, The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee; the hybrid-genre photo-text memoir Intimate; the book-length essay The Broken Country: On Trauma, A Crime, and the Continuing Legacy of Vietnam; and a book on cultural appropriation in literature titled Appropriate: A Provocation, published by W.W. Norton in February 2021.  She is also the author … Continue reading A Reading by Paisley Rekdal: Fisher Family Writer-in-Residence →

Tim Seibles is the author of six collections of poetry, including Body Moves (1988), Hurdy-Gurdy (1992), Hammerlock (1999), Buffalo Head Solos (2004), and Fast Animal (2012), which won the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize, received the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award, and was nominated for a 2012 National Book Award. His latest work of poetry, One Turn Around the Sun, was published by Etruscan Press in 2017. His … Continue reading Rolling Reading Series Presents Poet Tim Seibles →

              Natasha Trethewey served two terms as the 19th Poet Laureate of the United States (2012-2014). She is the author of five collections of poetry, Monument (2018), which was longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award; Thrall (2012); Native Guard (2006), for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize; … Continue reading CANCELED: Natasha Trethewey to Read as 2022 Dickinson Lecturer →