After a shaky start, we have now found a permanent home for this series. The Visiting Writers Series has given graduate students plenty of opportunities to meet and study with established writers of fiction and poetry. We began the year with a visit from Joel Brouwer, the winner of the annual Levis Reading Prize. In addition to his poetry reading, Brouwer conducted a student workshop on revising poetry. October brought a reading by our own Bill Tester, who read from his collection of short stories, Head .
Tester teaches graduate and undergraduate fiction workshops.
Also this semester, George Saunders, critically acclaimed author of Civilwarland in Bad Decline and Pastoralia , visited campus. He read from Pastoralia , conducted a student workshop, and conversed with students over lunch and dinner. We look forward to similar opportunities this spring when poet Edward Hirsch, fiction writers Mathew Klamm and Melissa Pritchard, and writer Bob Shacochis visit campus. Again, dates and times are available on the English Department web site, and members and visitors of the Richmond community are encouraged to come to the Visiting Writers readings.