Admissions

The Visiting Writers Series has been an integral part of the writing program at Chester College since its inception, but with the growth of the Writing and Literature Department and an endowment from Elizabeth Yates McGreal, the caliber and scope of the Series has grown. Previous visiting writers have included Jennifer Haigh, Mary Gaitskill, Michelle Tea and David Crouse. The writing faculty believe it is vital that writing students, as well as all students of the arts, hear from working writers so they better understand the standards and expectations of the professional writing community, and that students receive critical feedback from professionals on their own work in workshop settings.

Frank Soos has published two works of fiction - Early Yet and Unified Field Theory, which was the 1997 winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction - and one book of essays, Bamboo Fly Rod Suite. His short essay responses to Margo Klass's work represent a new and unexpected direction in his work.  Soos' visit is also part of the Visiting Artists Symposium.

 

 

Christopher Janke

Wednesday, Oct. 7

6 PM, public reading and Q & A

Christopher Janke is the owner of Suzee's Third St. Laundry in TFMA. He is Senior Editor of Slope Editions, and his poems have appeared in Harper's, The American Poetry Review and other journals.

 

 

Elizabeth Graver

Wednesday, Oct. 28

1-3 PM, talk with students

6 PM, public reading, Powers 29

 

Elizabeth Graver is at work on a project titled Plants and Their Children, a series of linked novellas set in a summer community on Buzzard’s Bay from 1942 to 2000. She is the author of three novels: Awake, The Honey Thief, and Unravelling. Her short story collection, Have You Seen Me?, won the 1991 Drue Heinz Literature Prize. Her work has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories (1991, 2001); Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards (1994, 1996, 2001); The Pushcart Prize Anthology (2001), and Best American Essays (1998). Her story “The Mourning Door” was awarded the Cohen Prize from Ploughshares Magazine. The mother of two daughters, she teaches English and Creative Writing at Boston College.

 

 

 

 

 

 

George Saunders

Monday, Nov. 16

1-2:20 PM, talk with students

6-8 PM, public reading with Q & A, Powers 29

George Saunders is the author of three collections of short stories: the bestselling Pastoralia, set against a warped, hilarious, and terrifyingly recognizable American landscape; CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, a Finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, and In Persuasion Nation, one of three finalists for the 2006 STORY Prize for best short story collection of the year. Saunders is also the author of the novella-length illustrated fable, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, which takes us into a profoundly strange country called Inner Horner, and the New York Times bestselling children's book, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip, illustrated by Lane Smith, which has also won major children’s literature prizes in Italy and the Netherlands.   Most recently, he published a book of essays, The Braindead Megaphone, which received critical acclaim.

His work appears regularly in The New Yorker, GQ, and Harpers Magazine, and has appeared in the O’Henry, Best American Short Story, Best Non-Required Reading, and Best American Travel Writing anthologies.

In 2001, Saunders was selected by Entertainment Weekly as one of the 100 top most creative people in entertainment, and by The New Yorker in 2002 and one of the best writers 40 and under. He teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Syracuse University.