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September 22, 2008
Authors are readers in creative writing series

By Paula Vitaris

A diverse slate of authors will give readings at Emory during the 2008-2009 year, thanks to events planned by the Creative Writing Program Reading Series, the Danowski Poetry Collection Reading Series, and the Poetry Council.

The Creative Writing Program Reading Series has scheduled four authors for readings and colloquia, beginning with novelist Percival Everett on Sept. 23-24. Everett will be followed by playwright Theresa Rebeck on Nov. 10-11, and short story writer and novelist Alyce Miller on March 2-3. The series will end on April 20 with the annual Awards Night celebration of student writing, during which National Book Award winner and former Emory faculty member Ha Jin will announce the winners of the writing contests and give a reading. Jin will also give a colloquium on April 21.

Poetry is represented on campus with readings sponsored by the Danowski Poetry Library Reading Series and the Poetry Council. The Danowski series, which brings major poets of international repute to campus, will resume in spring 2009 after a semester break.

“This year we hope to have a full spring schedule, as the Reading Series resumes after the Schatten Gallery exhibitions based on the Danowski collection, ‘Democratic Vistas’ and ‘My Dreams, My Works: Selections from the Library of Gwendolyn Brooks,’” says Danowski Library curator, Atticus Haygood Professor of English and Creative Writing Kevin Young, whose sixth collection of poetry, “Dear Darkness,” was published earlier this month.

The Poetry Council’s “What’s New in Poetry” reading series gives students the opportunity to hear and meet poets in the first and second stages of their careers, according to Bruce Covey, Poetry Council director and a lecturer in the Creative Writing Program.

“These writers are young and approachable; most have fewer than two books published, yet all have already found acclaim in poetry circles,” Covey says. The council has scheduled 22 poets for the year, including Ariana Reines, who visited Sept. 11, and Sandra Beasley, Terita Heath-Wlaz and Dorine Preston on Sept. 18. Other poets this fall include Dorothea Lasky, Sueyeun Juliette Lee, Ron Klassnik, Shanna Compton, Jennifer Knox, Sandra Simonds, Katy Lederer, and Donna Stonecipher. The spring readers will include Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, whose reading, Covey says, will be the major Poetry Council event of the year, and Christine Hume.