AC Reading Series
Events are free and open to the public and sponsored by the English Department. A book signing will follow the reading. For more information, please contact the English Department at (517) 629-0232.
2023-2024 Reading Series
Stevie Edwards
Poetry Reading
Thursday, April 4 2024, 5:00 p.m.
Bobbitt Visual Arts Center Auditorium
Please join us on Thursday, April 4 at 5:00 pm in the Bobbitt Visual Arts Center Auditorium (Bobbitt 113) for a reading from Quiet Armor.
Kiley Reid
Fiction Reading
Wednesday, March 20, 2024, 7:00 p.m.
Towsley Lecture Hall/Norris 101
Join us for the annual Yinger Lecture.
Please join us on Wednesday, March 20 at 7:00 pm in Towsley Lecture Hall/Norris 101 for a reading from Come and Get It.
Helena Mesa
Poetry Reading
Thursday, February 1, 2024, 5:30 p.m.
Bobbitt Visual Arts Center Auditorium
Helena Mesa is the author of Where Land Is Indistinguishable from Sea and Horse Dance Underwater (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2009). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in various literary journals such as Barrow Street, Bat City Review, Cimarron Review, Indiana Review, Pleiades, Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, and Third Coast. She has been a fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts & Sciences, and Writers in the Heartland; she was also a UMS artist in residence (2015-2016).
She is also a co-editor for Mentor & Muse: Essays from Poets to Poets (Southern Illinois University Press, 2010), an anthology of essays that examines poetic techniques. In 2018, Helena Mesa, Blas Falconer, and Beth Martinelli launched Mentor and Muse online, providing teachers, readers, and poets more access to the project.
A Cuban American, born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Mesa earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland (1997), and a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston (2003). A Professor at Albion College, she lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Please join us on Thursday, February 1 at 5:30 pm in the Bobbitt Visual Arts Center Auditorium (Bobbitt 113) for a reading from Where Land Is Indistinguishable from Sea.
2019-2020 Reading Series
Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
Poetry Reading
Wednesday, March 25, 2020, 5:30 p.m.
Wendell Will Room
Marcelo Hernandez Castillo is a poet, essayist, translator, and immigration advocate. He is the author of the collection Cenzontle (2018), which won the 2017 A. Poulin Jr. prize, and the chapbook Dulce (2018). His memoir, Children of the Land (2020), is his most recent publication. His work has appeared or been featured in The New York Times, PBS Newshour, People Magazine en Español, The Paris Review, Fusion TV, Buzzfeed, Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts, New England Review, and Indiana Review, among others. He currently teaches in the Low-Res MFA program at Ashland University. Please join us on Wednesday, March 25 at 5:30 pm in the Wendell Will Room for a reading from Cenzontle.
Rebecca McLaughlin
Fiction Reading
Thursday, February 20, 2020, 5:30 p.m.
Wendell Will Room
Join us in welcoming Albion College alum Rebecca McLaughlin on Thursday, February 20th as she shares her debut novel, The Nameless Queen. Rebecca is a Michigan nerd who appreciates sweet coffee, kindness, and the scientific method. She got her degree in chemistry and creative writing from Albion in 2014. Since that time, she’s worked as a technical writer in Michigan. When not working or crafting stories, Rebecca can be found practicing her knife-throwing skills or seeking out the perfect cup of coffee. She wrote Nameless Queen because she grew up lower-middle class (which was not ideal), went to a private college (which was weird), and made good friends along the way (which was wonderful). She realized that exploring the social and economic divide is difficult, but magic makes that exploration easier–or at least more entertaining.
Lesley Nneka Arimah
Fiction Reading
Monday, February 3, 2020, 5:30 p.m.
Wendell Will Room
Lesley Nneka Arimah, author of What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky, was born in the UK and grew up in Nigeria and wherever else her father was stationed for work. A National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” honoree, her work has been a finalist for a National Magazine Award and the Caine Prize, and a winner of the Kirkus Prize, the African Commonwealth Short Story Prize, the GLCA New Writers Award for Fiction, and an O. Henry Award, among other honors. She lives in Minneapolis.
Dawn Davies
Creative Nonfiction Reading
Thursday, November 14, 2019, 5:30 p.m.
Wendell Will Room
Dawn Davies is the author of Mothers of Sparta: A Memoir in Pieces (Flatiron Books, 2018), which recently won the Florida Book Award Gold Medal for Nonfiction and the GLCA New Writers Award for Creative Nonfiction. It was also a 2018 and 2019 Indies Next List book. Her numerous essays and stories have been Pushcart Special Mentions and Best American Essays notables. Her work can be found in McSweeny’s Quarterly Concern, The Missouri Review, Poetry Northwest, Arts & Letters, Narrative, Fourth Genre and elsewhere. She lives in weird Florida. You can find out more about her at dawndaviesbooks.com.
Justine McNulty
Fiction Reading
Thursday, November 14, 2019, 5:30 p.m.
Wendell Will Room
Author of Sweet Rot (Finishing Line Press, 2019), Ohio native Justine McNulty received her Master of Arts in Fiction in the Spring of 2014 from the University of Cincinnati, where she taught English Composition and was a volunteer editor for The Cincinnati Review. She has stories published in Confrontation Magazine, The Masters Review: New Voices, Juked, Miracle Monocle, The Hilltop Review, Pif Magazine, Qua Magazine, Pen + Brush and others, as well as poetry published in Canary Literary Journal. Justine currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with her husband Luke, son Link, and cats Marceline and Mortimer. She is currently a volunteer editor for Third Coast magazine and in her spare time enjoys cooking, spending time with her family, and visiting nature centers.
2018-2019 Reading Series
Hilary Plum
Creative Nonfiction Reading
Monday, April 8, 2019, 5:30 p.m.
Wendell Will Room
Hilary Plum is the author of the novel Strawberry Fields, winner of the Fence Modern Prize in Prose (2018); the work of nonfiction Watchfires (2016), winner of the 2018 GLCA New Writers Award; and the novel They Dragged Them Through the Streets (2013). She has worked for a number of years as an editor of international literature, history, and politics. She teaches at Cleveland State University and in the NEOMFA program and is associate director of the CSU Poetry Center. With Zach Savich she edits the Open Prose Series at Rescue Press.
Emily Fridlund
Fiction Reading
Thursday, March 14, 2019, 5:30 p.m.
Wendell Will Room
Emily Fridlund grew up in Minnesota and currently lives in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Her first novel, History of Wolves, was a finalist for the Booker Prize and the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction, and longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Fiction. It was awarded the American Academy of Arts and Letters Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction and the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award. It was also a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, A New York Times Editor’s Choice, one of USA Today’s Notable Books, an Amazon Best Book of the Month, and a #1 Indie Next pick. The opening chapter was awarded the McGinnis-Ritchie Award for Fiction. Fridlund’s debut collection of stories, Catapult, won the Mary McCarthy Prize. Her fiction has appeared in a variety of journals, including Boston Review, ZYZZYVA, FiveChapters, New Orleans Review, Sou’wester, New Delta Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, and Southwest Review.
Chen Chen
Poetry Reading
Thursday, February 14, 2019, 5:30 p.m.
Wendell Will Room
Chen Chen is the author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, the GLCA New Writers Award, and the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry. The collection was also a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry and named one of the best of 2017 by The Brooklyn Rail, Entropy, Library Journal, and others. His work has appeared in many publications, including Poetry, Tin House, Poem-a-Day, The Best American Poetry, Bettering American Poetry, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. Chen earned his MFA from Syracuse University and is pursuing a PhD in English and Creative Writing as an off-site Texas Tech University student. He lives in frequently snowy Rochester, NY with his partner, Jeff Gilbert and their pug dog, Mr. Rupert Giles. Chen is the 2018-2020 Jacob Ziskind Poet-in-Residence at Brandeis University.
Shannon Gibney
Fiction Reading
Wednesday, January 30, 2019, 5:30 p.m.
Wendell Will Room
Shannon Gibney is a writer, educator, activist, and the author of See No Color(Carolrhoda Lab, 2015), a young adult novel that won the 2016 Minnesota Book Award in Young Peoples’ Literature. Gibney is faculty in English at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, where she teaches critical and creative writing, journalism, and African Diasporic topics. A Bush Artist and McKnight Writing Fellow, her critically-acclaimed new novel, Dream Country, is about more than five generations of an African descended family, crisscrossing the Atlantic both voluntarily and involuntarily (Dutton, 2018). In October 2019, University of Minnesota Press will release What God is Honored Here?: Writings on Miscarriage and Infant Loss By and For Native Women and Women of Color, which she co-edited with writer Kao Kalia Yang. Photo credit – Kristine Heykants.
H.R. Webster
Poetry Reading
Wednesday, November 14, 2018, 5:30 p.m.
Wendell Will Room
H.R. Webster is a poet and educator from New England. She holds a BA from Vassar College and an MFA from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan. H.R. has received fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Vermont Studio Center, Art Farm, and InsideOut Detroit Literary Arts. She has served as Assistant Editor of the Michigan Review of Prisoner Creative Writing and helped launch the Poetry Beyond Bars Summer Writing Intensive for Incarcerated Writers. H.R. has taught writing in prisons, secondary schools, museums, and colleges around New England and the Midwest. She currently teaches at Albion College and serves as the Managing Editor of the Michigan Quarterly Review. Her work has appeared in The Massachusetts Review, Ecotone, Black Warrior Review, The Seattle Review, Ninth Letter, and other journals.
Leia Penina Wilson
Poetry Reading
Wednesday, November 14, 2018, 5:30 p.m.
Wendell Will Room
Dr. Leia Penina Wilson is an afakasi Samoan poet hailing from the Midwest. She’s spent the last five years in the desert of Las Vegas, NV. You can check out her work in OmniVerse, Dream Pop Press, Diagram, Alice Blue Review, Verse Daily, Bombay Gin, and others. Her favorite things are reading trashy paranormal romance novels, Magic the Gathering, nature documentaries, and koko. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram @rakishheir.
Ryler Dustin
Poetry Reading
Wednesday, November 14, 2018, 5:30 p.m.
Wendell Will Room
Ryler Dustin’s poems appear or are forthcoming in The Best of Iron Horse, American Life in Poetry, Gulf Coast, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA from the University of Houston and a PhD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and has performed on the final stage of the Individual World Poetry Slam. His book, Heavy Lead Birdsong, is available from Write Bloody Publishing.
2016-2017 Reading Series
Lauren Acampora
Fiction Reading
Thursday, March 16, 2017, 5:10 p.m.
Wendell Will Room
Lauren Acampora is the author of The Wonder Garden (Grove Atlantic), a collection of linked stories which won the GLCA New Writers Award for Fiction (2016), and was both a finalist for the New England Book Award and on the longlist for The Story Prize. The book was also a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection and an Indie Next selection, and was chosen as one of the best books of the year by NPR. Acampora’s stories have appeared in literary journals such as The Paris Review, Missouri Review, Prairie Schooner, New England Review, and Antioch Review. She has received fellowships from the Ucross Foundation, Writers OMI International Residency, and the Ragdale Foundation. A graduate of Brown University and Brooklyn College, Acampora lives in Westchester County, New York.
Natalie Scenters-Zapico
Poetry Reading
Thursday, April 6, 2017, 5:10 p.m.
Wendell Will Room
Natalie Scenters-Zapico is the author of The Verging Cities, which won the GLCA New Writers Award for Poetry (2016), 2015 NACCS Tejas FOCO Book Award, and 2016 Utah Book Award in poetry. The poetry collection was also named a Must-Read Debut by LitHub and listed as a top ten debut of 2015 by Poets and Writers. Her poems have appeared in literary journals and anthologies such as American Poets, The Believer, Prairie Schooner, West Branch, and Best American Poetry 2015. A Canto Mundo fellow, Natalie Scenters-Zapico is from the sister cities of El Paso, Texas, U.S.A. and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México. She lives in Salt Lake City. For more information, visit her at https://nataliescenterszapico.com/.
2015-2016 Reading Series
Angela Pelster
Creative Nonfiction Reading:
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
5:30 p.m.
Wendell Will Room
Angela Pelster is the author of Limber (Sarabande), which won the GLCA New Writers Award for creative nonfiction. The Seattle Times describes Limber as “one of the quirkiest and most original books about the natural world… Filled with precise, poetical and sparse language, the essays reveal not just the life of trees but how they connect us to the greater world around us.” Pelster’s essays have appeared in Granta, The Gettysburg Review, Seneca Review, Fourth Genre, and others. Her children’s novel, The Curious Adventures of India Sophia (River Books), won the Golden Eagle Children’s Choice award in 2006. She earned an MFA from the University of Iowa. She currently lives with her family in Baltimore and teaches at Towson University.
Tarfia Faizullah
Poetry Reading:
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
5:30 p.m.
Wendell Will Room
Tarfia Faizullah is the author of Seam (Southern Illinois University Press), which won the GLCA New Writers Award for poetry. Faizullah’s poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, Poetry Daily, Ploughshares, Jubilat, Kenyon Review, New England Review, and elsewhere. She has received various awards, including the 2015 VIDA Award in Poetry, a 2015 Pushcart Prize, a Ploughshares Cohen Award, an Associated Writers Program Intro Journals Award, and the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Prize. A native of Midland, Texas, she earned an MFA from the Virginia Commonwealth University. Currently, Faizullah lives in Detroit, and is an editor for the Asian American Literary Review and the Organic Weapon Arts Chapbook Series. Visit her online at: www.tfaizullah.com.
David James Poissant
Fiction Reading:
Thursday, April 7, 2016
5:30 p.m.
Wendell Will Room
David James Poissant is the winner of the GLCA New Writers Award for fiction for his collection of short stories, The Heaven of Animals (Simon & Schuster), which was a finalist for the 2014 LA Times Book Prize and was nominated for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction. His work has also appeared in The Atlantic, The Chicago Tribune, Glimmer Train, One Story, Ploughshares, and The Southern Review, and his stories have been anthologized in New Stories from the South and Best New American Voices. He has received various awards, including the Matt Clark Prize, the George Garrett Fiction Award, the RopeWalk Fiction Chapbook Prize, and the Alice White Reeves Memorial Award from the National Society of Arts & Letters. Currently at work on a novel, Poissant teaches at the University of Central Florida and lives in Orlando. Visit him online at: www.davidjamespoissant.com.