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, Billy Collins, Robert Coover, Samuel R. Delany, Mark Doty,
David James Duncan, Stephen Dunn, Tony Earley, Raymond Federman,
Carolyn Forche, Jorie Graham, Robert Hass Ursula Hegi, Tony Hoagland, Stanley, Kunitz, Li-Young Lee,
Margot Livesey, Beverly Lowry, Carole Maso,
Campbell McGrath, Rebecca
McClanahan, Heather McHugh,
Antonya Nelson, Sharon Olds, Marilynne
Robinson, Sonia Sanchez, Ellen
Bryant Voigt, Derek
Walcott, and David Foster Wallace.
2007-2008 DVWs
Patricia Hampl, nonfiction
Ann Pancake, fiction
Mark Halliday, poetry
2008-2009 DVWs
Dan Chaon (October 1st, 2008)
Dan Chaon is the acclaimed author of Fitting Ends and Among
the Missing, a finalist for the National Book Award, which was also
listed as one of the ten best books of the year by the American Library
Association, Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, and
Entertainment Weekly, as well as being cited as a New York Times
Notable Book. Chaon's fiction has appeared in numerous journals and
anthologies, and won both Pushcart and O. Henry awards. Chaon
teaches at Oberlin College and lives in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, with
his wife and two sons.
Stephen Kuusisto (November 5, 2008)
A graduate
of the “Writer’s Workshop” at the University of Iowa, and a Fulbright
Scholar, Steve
holds a dual faculty appointment at the University of Iowa where he
teaches courses in creative nonfictionin the English Department and
serves as a public humanities scholar in the U of Iowa’s Carver
Institute for Macular Degenaration. He speaks widely on
diversity, disability, education, and public policy. His essays and
poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and literary magazines
including Harper’s’ The New York Times Magazine; Poetry; and
Partisan Review. He is currently working on a collection of prose
poems for Copper Canyon Press entitled "Mornings With Borges" as well as
a collection of political poems about disability.
B.H. Fairchild (March 25, 2009)
B. H. Fairchild grew up in small towns in Texas, Oklahoma, and
southwest Kansas. He is the author of The Arrival of the Future,
Local Knowledge, and The Art of the Lathe, a finalist for
the National Book Award and winner of the Kingsley Tufts Award, the
William Carlos Williams Award, the California Book Award, the PEN Center
West Poetry Award, and an award from the Texas Institute of Letters. He
is the recipient of Guggenheim, Rockefeller/Bellagio, and NEA
Fellowships, and recently received the Arthur Rense Poetry Award from
the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in California.
For further information, please contact
the Coordinator of Creative Writing Brandon Schrand at
bschrand@uidaho.edu.
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