University of Idaho

Dept. of English
University of Idaho
P.O. Box 441102
Moscow, ID 83844-1102

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UI Visiting Writers Program

 

The Distinguished Visiting Writers Program was instituted in 1978 at the University of Idaho. It brings three to five nationally recognized authors to campus each year to provide graduates and undergraduates with a week of intensive instruction in poetry, fiction, or nonfiction writing, both in workshop settings and in one-on-one sessions. The workshop sessions are generally offered as a one-credit course. The credit can be used as part of the degree requirements for the B.A. in English, the M.F.A. in Creative Writing, and the M.A. in English.

Distinguished Visiting Writers are chosen not only for their talent as teachers and writers, but also for the diversity they bring to students in terms of genre, vision, voice, and background. Among those who have taught in the program are Kathy Acker, Charles Baxter, Ann Beattie, Robert Boswell, Ron Carlson, Lan Samantha Chang, Joshua Ferris, Billy Collins, Robert Coover, Samuel R. Delany, Mark Doty, David James Duncan, Stephen Dunn, Tony Earley, Ben Fountain, Raymond Federman, Carolyn Forche, Jorie Graham, Robert Hass, Ursula Hegi, Tony Hoagland, Ann Pancake, Stanley Kunitz, Li-Young Lee, Patricia Hampl, Margot Livesey, Mark Halliday, Beverly Lowry, Carole Maso, Campbell McGrath, Rebecca McClanahan, Heather McHugh, Antonya Nelson, Sharon Olds, Marilynne Robinson, Sonia Sanchez, Natasha Tretheway, Ellen Bryant Voigt, Derek Walcott, and David Foster Wallace.

In addition to the Distinguished Visiting Writers series, we also invite many other renowned writers to give readings on campus throughout the year.

2009-2010 Visiting Writers

Denise Duhamel (September 23, 2009. Location TBA)

Denise Duhamel is the author of numerous books and chapbooks of poetry. Her most recent titles are Two and Two (University of Pittsburgh, 2005) and Mille et un sentiments (Firewheel Editions, 2005). Her other books currently in print are Queen for a Day: Selected and New Poems (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001), The Star-Spangled Banner, winner of the Crab Orchard Poetry Prize (1999); Kinky (1997); Girl Soldier (1996); and How the Sky Fell (1996). A winner of an National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, she has been anthologized widely, including four volumes of The Best American Poetry.

Michael Dahlie (2009 PEN/Hemingway Award Winner)

October 7, 2009 (Location TBA)

Michael Dahlie, winner of the 2009 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award in Fiction, is the author of   A Gentleman’s Guide to Graceful Living. His fiction can be found in places like Ploughshares, Mississipi Review, and The Kenyon Review.  The New York Times called A Gentleman's Guide to Graceful Living "A discretely charming book." Booklist noted how “Dahlie’s dark humor and light touch elevate [his] debut about a damaged man determined to make the best of the rest of his life.” He lives in New York City with his wife, Allison Lynn.  A Gentleman’s Guide to Graceful Living is his first novel. The University of Idaho's Creative Writing Program and the Hemingway Review have partnered with the Hemingway Foundation/PEN New England in the annual award. Each year, the winner visits the University of Idaho to read and meet with students, faculty, and the community.

 Steve Almond (October 21, 2009. Location TBA)

Steve Almond is the author of two story collections, My Life in Heavy Metal and The Evil B.B. Chow, the non-fiction book Candyfreak, and the novel Which Brings Me to You, co-written with Julianna Baggott. He lives outside Boston with his wife and baby daughter Josephine.

 

Spring 2010

Susan Orlean (TBA)

Susan Orlean is a staff writer for The New Yorker, and acclaimed author of The Bullfighter Checks her Makeup, My Kind of Place, Lazy Little Loafers, the award-winning, The Orchid Thief, and others. The Orchid Thief was a New York Times bestseller, a Barnes and Noble Discover book, a Borders New Voices selection, an honoree in the American Library Association and New York Public Library books-of-the-year selections, and the subject of the movie, Adaptation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For further information, please contact the Coordinator of Creative Writing Brandon Schrand at bschrand@uidaho.edu.

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