Fall 2008 Reading Series

Cornell's creative writing program is pleased to announce its Fall 2008 Reading Series. All events are free and open to the public.

Go to the new Writers at Cornell blog to listen to J.Robert Lennon’s interviews with our visiting writers: http://writersatcornell.blogspot.com/

September 4, Thursday: Irakli Kakabadze, Fiction Writer, Ithaca City of Asylum Writer in Residence

4:30 pm, Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall

Irakli Kakabadze is one of the leading contemporary Georgian writers. He is an author of five books and scores of short stories and poems. In 1990 Kakabadze was awarded an award by “Tsiskari” magazine for his novel Allegro. He was one of the first writers in Georgia to focus on painful issues of drugs and violence. Since 1990 he has published more than 50 short stories in Georgian, Russian and English publications. His play “Candidate Jokola,” which was published in 2005, became one of the most discussed stories of love between a Georgian man and Abkhaz woman. In his country, he is well known as a writer and political activist, who has engaged in social life since the late 1980s.

This event is made possible by the generosity of two anonymous donors who are alumni of Cornell University.

September 11, Thursday: Shauna Seliy, Fiction Writer

4:30 pm, Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall

Shauna Seliy is the author of the novel When We Get There (Bloomsbury 2007). She has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has received fellowships from

Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony. From 2003-2004 she was the Writer-in-Residence at St. Albans School in Washington DC. Her work has appeared in Other Voices, Meridian, the New Orleans Review, and the Alaska Quarterly Review. She teaches creative writing at Northwestern University.

This event is made possible by the generosity of two anonymous donors who are alumni of Cornell University.

September 18, Thursday: Patrick Somerville, Fiction Writer

4:30 pm, Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall

Patrick Somerville grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, went to college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and later earned his MFA in creative writing from Cornell University. He has taught writing at Cornell University, Auburn State Correctional Facility, and The Graham School in Chicago. His work has appeared in One Story, Epoch, GQ, Esquire, and Best American Nonrequired Reading, and his book of short stories, Trouble, was named by Time Out Chicago, as 2006's Best Book. His first novel, The Cradle, will be published by Little, Brown in March of 2009, when he will also be serving as the Blattner Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Northwestern University.

This event is made possible by the generosity of two anonymous donors who are alumni of Cornell University.

October 2, Thursday: Charles Simic, U.S. Poet Laureate

4:30 pm, Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall

Charles Simic, the fifteenth Poet Laureate of the United States (2007-2008), was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in 1938, and immigrated to the United States in 1953, at the age of 15. He has lived in New York, Chicago, the San Francisco area and for many years in New Hampshire where until his retirement he was a professor of English at the university. A poet, essayist and translator, he has been honored with Wallace Stevens Award, a Pulitzer Prize, two PEN Awards for his work as a translator, and a MacArthur Fellowship.

This event is made possible by the generosity of two anonymous donors who are alumni of Cornell University.

October 30, Thursday: Terrance Hayes, Poet

4:30 pm, Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall

Terrance Hayes is the author of Wind In A Box (Penguin 2006), which was listed as one of the best books of 2006 by Publishers Weekly and was a finalist for the Hurston Wright Poetry Prize. Hip Logic (Penguin 2002), his second collection of poems, was a National Poetry Series selection, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award and runner-up for the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. His first book, Muscular Music, garnered a Whiting Writers Award and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. Other honors include a Profile on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, a Pushcart Prize, two Best American Poetry selections, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. His new poems have appeared in the New Yorker, Poetry, and The American Poetry Review. He is a Full Professor of Creative Writing at Carnegie Mellon University and lives with his family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

This event is made possible by the generosity of two anonymous donors who are alumni of Cornell University.

November 6, Thursday: Brenda Hillman, Poet

Robert Chasen Memorial Poetry Reading

4:30 pm, Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall

Brenda Hillman has published seven collections of poetry: White Dress (1985), Fortress (1989), Death Tractates (1992), Bright Existence (1993), Loose Sugar (1997), Cascadia (2001), and Pieces of Air in the Epic (2005), all from Wesleyan University Press, and three chapbooks: Coffee, 3 A.M. (Penumbra Press, 1982), Autumn Sojourn (Em Press, 1995), and The Firecage (a+bend press, 2000). She has edited an edition of Emily Dickinson's poetry for Shambhala Publications, and, with Patricia Dienstfrey, co-edited The Grand Permisson: New Writings on Poetics and Motherhood (2003).

The Robert Chasen Poetry Reading is a biennial event, featuring a public reading by a distinguished poet. It was established in 1980 by Margaret Rosenzweig '32, in memory of Robert Chasen.

For more information about the Fall 2008 Reading Series or about on-campus parking, contact Laurel Guy at lrg29@cornell.edu or call 607.255.6800.