Ithaca College

Would you like to study creative writing with some of the most acclaimed writers in their field? 

If so, the Department of Writing is accepting applications from now until Nov. 17 for the Visiting Writer's Workshop (WRTG 38000), a 1-credit course in which students will study with — and receive feedback on their work from — the three nationally recognized authors who'll be brought to IC for the Spring 2018 Distinguished Visiting Writers Series. 

Interested students should fill out this APPLICATION. Acceptance into the class guarantees students:

• 2 unique writing classes taught by each writer 
• 1-on-1 feedback on their own writing
• lunch with one of the writers, paid for by the Department of Writing

The Spring 2018 Distinguished Visiting Writers will be: 

1. Roger Reeves, Poet, March 20-22, who'll give a public reading on Wed., March 21 at 5:30 pm in Clark Lounge. 

Roger Reeves’s poems have appeared in journals such as Poetry, Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Best American Poetry, and Tin House, among others.  He was awarded a 2015 Whiting Award, a Pushcart Prize, a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, a 2013 NEA Fellowship, and a Ruth Lilly Fellowship by the Poetry Foundation in 2008. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas-Austin. His first book is King Me (Copper Canyon Press, 2013), which won the Larry Levis Reading Prize from Virginia Commonwealth University, the Zacharis Prize from Ploughshares, and the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award. He teaches graduate workshops and seminars in poetry, poetics, and literature.

 2. Ayana Mathis (pictured), Novelist, April 11-13, who'll give a public reading on Thurs., April 12 at 6 pm at Handwerker Gallery. 

Ayana Mathis is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a recipient of the 2014-15 New York Public Library's Cullman Center Fellowship. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, her first novel, was a New York Times Bestseller, a 2013 New York Times Notable Book of the Year, an NPR Best Books of 2013 and was chosen by Oprah Winfrey as the second selection for Oprah's Book Club 2.0. She has taught Creative Writing at The Writer's Foundry MFA Program at St. Joseph's College, Brooklyn. She is an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

3. Elena Passarello, Creative Nonfiction, April 23-25, who'll give a public reading on Tues, April 24 at 5:30 pm in Clark Lounge. 

Elena Passarello’s essay collections include Let Me Clear My Throat  and Animals Strike Curious Poses. She is the recipient of the Independent Publishers’ gold medal for nonfiction and the 2015 Whiting Award in nonfiction, as well as a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. The nonfiction editor at Iron Horse Review and co-editor of the “In Place” nonfiction series at West Virginia University Press, she teaches literary nonfiction at Oregon State University.

To learn more about the DVW series, visit here. 

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Nick Kowalczyk at nkowalczyk@ithaca.edu or (607) 274-5146. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible.