URS
The 草榴社区's Reading Series
Begun in 1983 by Professor John Meredith Hill, the University Reading Series brings distinguished writers of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and drama to campus each year to give free public readings of their work to the greater 草榴社区 community and to meet with, instruct, and inspire students and faculty in the Department of English and Theatre.
Guest readers have included: Anne Pierson Wiese (Floating City Poems), Catie Rosemurgy (The Stranger Maual), David Wyatt (The Year America Turned), Ada Limón (Bright Dead Things, Sharks in the Rivers, This Big Fake World: A Story in Verse, Lucky Wreck), Allison Joseph (Voices: Poems, My Father's Kite, Worldly Pleasures, Imitation of Life, Soul Train), Matthew Hobson (The Audubon Guide to North American Suicides), Brianna Noll (The Price of Scarlet), and Martha Serpas (The Diener, The Dirty Side of the Storm).
For more information, please email Joe Kraus or Billie Tadros, Department of English & Theatre.
2024-2025
The University Reading Series welcomes Matthew Porto to read from his new book of poems called Moon Grammar.
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Place: Fireplace Room, The DeNaples Center, 405
Free and open to the public
Matthew Porto is an Italian-American poet from Long Island, NY, and a 草榴社区 alumnus (class of 2012). He also holds an MFA in poetry from Boston University and a Ph.D. in English from Texas Tech University. His first collection, Moon Grammar, appeared with Slant Books in 2024. He lives in Boston, MA, where he is a professor of English at Berklee College of Music.
2023-24
The English & Theatre dept. partnered with the Wienberg Memorial Library to host a reading featuring of one of our Alumns.
E Kerr is a graduate of English & Occupational Therapy at The University of Scranton. Their Poetry focuses on how the literary arts can be used to explore and represent identity. They are a recipient of the inaugural 2022 Stennker/Dennis LGBT& Award, and their work has been featured in various publications, including Rappahannock Review & Esprit. Kerr's debut collection, trans [re]incarnation, was released in April 2023, with Mason Jar Press. Kerr , a transmasculine poet, lives and writes in 草榴社区, Pennsylvania.
2022-23
S.L. Wisenberg is the author of a fiction collection, The Sweetheart Is In; the essay collection Holocaust Girls: History, Memory & Other Obsessions; and a chronicle, The Adventures of Cancer Bitch. She has received a Pushcart Prize, and awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Illinois Arts council, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provicetown. She lives in Chicago, whe she edits Another Chicago Magazine.
2021-2022
Kayleb Rae Candrilli is the recipient of a Whiting Award, PEW fellowship, and of a fellowship from the National Endownment of the Arts. They are the author of Water I Won't Touch, All the Gay Saints, and What Runs Over.
2020-2021
Christine Taylor
Christine Taylor resides in her hometown Plainfield, New Jersey. She is the EIC of Kissing Dynamite: A Journal of Poetry and the author of The Queen City (Broken Sleep Books, 2019) Petal (Bone & Ink Press, 2020), CLAW: A Collection of Haibun (Ghost City Press, 2020), and Buffer Aone: Snapshots from an Abourtion Clinic Escort (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, 2020). She spends most days covered in cat hair and staring at Christmas lights. Visit her at
Elizabeth Deanna Morris Lakes
Elizabeth Deanna Morris Lakes was born in Harrisburg, PA and has a B.A. in Creative Writing from Susquehanna University and an M.F.A. from George Mason University. Her book, Ashley Sugarnotch & the Wolf, is out from Mason Jar Press. She has appeared in Always Crashing, The Rumpus, Cartridge Lit., Crab Fat Magazine, and SmokeLong Quarterly. She is the blog editor of The Rupture. She is one of two buds on The Smug Buds podcast.
2019-2020
Meg Day
Meg Day received their Ph.D. from the University of Utah. They are the author of Last Psalm at Sea Level (Barrow Street Press, 2014) and coeditor of Laura Hershey: On the Lie and Work of an American Master (Pleiades Press, 2019). They teach at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Day won the Publishing Triangle's Audre Lorde Award in Poetry and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Poetry.
Sadie Hoagland
Sadie Hoagland received her Ph.D. from the University of Utah. She is the author American Grief in Four Stages (West Virginia University Press, 2019). She teaches at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Amye Archer
Amye Archer received her M.F.A. from Wilkes University. She is the author of Fat Girl, Skinny (Big Table Publishing, 2016) and coeditor of If I Don't Make It, I Love You: Survivors in the Aftermath of School Shootings (Skyhorse Publishing, 2019). She is the Writing Center Coordinator and teaches at The 草榴社区.
Cristina Rivera Garza
Distinguished Professor in Hispanic Studies & Director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston. One of the foremost writers in the Spanish language, and one of the most interesting experimental writers in America, Rivera Garza has published 6 novels, three collections of stories, five collections of poetry, and three non-fiction books. Her books have been translated into multiple languages, including English, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Korean. Garza is set to give a reading of her work at 7:30pm in DeNaples 405.
2018-2019
Christine Friedlander
Writer, educator, and sexual assault survivor advocate read from her latest poetry works on Thursday, November 15, 2018 in the Edward Leahy Hall, Kane Forum, Room 235. Ms. Friedlander read from her most recent book of poetry titled, Avant Gauze. She is also the author of a Fiction Chapbook, Repeat After Me (winner of the RopeWalk Press Editor's Prize, 2017). The event was well attended by students, faculty and staff. A special thank you to the Jane Kopas Women's Center for their support.
Nov. 27, 2018
Angie Cruz
Author and Creative Writing Professor at the University of Pittsburgh will be reading from her latest works on October 18, 2018 in the DeNaples Center, room 405, from 7:00 - 8:00pm, all are welcome. She is an American novelist and the author of Let It Rain Coffee and Soledad and is currently working on a screenplay for one of them. Thanks to the support of the Office of Equity and Diversity, the Department of Latin-American & Women Studies, and the Humanities Initiative for helping us make this a possiblity.
October 19, 2018
Martha Serpas
Professor of English at the University of Houston, Creative Writing, poet and author of The Diener, The Dirty Side of the Storm and Cote Blanche will be reading from her latest works on Wednesday, February 21, 2018 in Leahy Hall, Kane Forum, room 235 from 5:00 - 6:30pm, all are welcome. This is made possible with support from the Jesuit Center, the Ellacuria Initiative and the Department of Theology.
Alumna Poet Brianna Noll's New Book Turning Heads
We're proud to boast about alum Brianna Noll (English, 2004) whose new book of poetry, , (University of Kentucky Press) is winning attention and praise.
The has recently named it a top book to read this January, and the magazine offers a glowing review, including the following:
Her vivid poems obscure the line between what is literal and what is figurative. The result is alchemic and ethereal — each verse intricately layered with sharp observation as well as emotional and intellectual exploration and questioning.
To read the full review, : We aren't the only ones to brag about Brianna Noll's recent collection of poetry. Read an interview with her :
February 14, 2017
