Celebrated writers of poetry, fiction, and literary non-fiction visit campus several times each year to give lectures, readings, discussions, and book signings. Presentations are held at 6:00 p.m. (preceded by receptions at 5:30 p.m.). All events are free and open to the public.
Thursday, February 7, 2013 - Behrend Reads
The Annual Reading by H&SS Faculty in the Larry and Kathryn Smith Chapel Worship Area
Thursday, March 28, 2013 - Aimee Parkison - Fiction
Reception in the Larry and Kathryn Smith Chapel Living Room
Reading in the Larry and Kathryn Smith Chapel Worship Area
Aimee Parkison is a graduate of the MFA creative writing program of Cornell University. In addition to
winning the first Starcherone Fiction Prize for her first book Woman with Dark Horses, her stories have
won a Kurt Vonnegut Fiction Prize from North American Review, a Jack Dyer Prize from Crab Orchard
Review, and a prize for emerging writers from Fiction International. Her new collection of stories is The
Innocent Party, published in 2012.
Thursday, April 4, 2013 - B.F.A. Senior Thesis Reading
Krista Banks, Dani Dicenzo, John Hadlock and Megan Sipos
Reading in the Larry and Kathryn Smith Chapel Worship Area
Thursday, April 11, 2013 - B.F.A. Senior Thesis Reading
Reading in the Larry and Kathryn Smith Chapel Worship Area
Penn State Erie Creative Writing alumni return to read from their original work: Ron Hayes (the new Erie County Poet Laureate,
Corey Zeller (whose first book, Man vs. Sky, was recently published), Jen Town (MFA from The Ohio State University), and Tracie
Morell (a finalist for the Erie County Poet Laureate) will read their published and unpublished poetry.
Thursday, April 18, 2013 - Karina Borowicz - Poetry
Reception in the Larry and Kathryn Smith Chapel Living Room
Reading in the Larry and Kathryn Smith Chapel Worship Area
Karina Borowicz’s collection, The Bees Are Waiting (2012), was selected by Franz Wright for the
Marick Press Poetry Prize. She holds an MFA from the University of New Hampshire, and her work
has appeared widely in journals, including AGNI, The Southern Review, Columbia Poetry Review,
and Poetry Northwest. Her translations have been featured in Poetry Daily. After living abroad for five
years teaching English in Russia and Lithuania, she currently resides in the Connecticut River Valley
of western Massachusetts.
Thursday, April 25, 2013 - Diana Abu-Jaber - Literary Nonfiction
Reception in the Larry and Kathryn Smith Chapel Living Room
Reading in the Larry and Kathryn Smith Chapel Worship
Diana Abu-Jaber is the author of a memoir, The Language of Baklava, published in 2007, and of the novel
Crescent, which was awarded the 2004 PEN Center USA Award for Literary Fiction and the Before Columbus
Foundation's American Book Award and was named one of the twenty best novels of 2003 by The Christian
Science Monitor, and Arabian Jazz, which won the 1994 Oregon Book Award and was nominated for the
PEN/Faulkner Award.
Previous Visiting Writers:
Fall 2012