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2018-08-02
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Val Dimino
New Semester Brings New Season of Visiting Authors
The nationally acclaimed Writers Forum will feature authors across the genres, including Rochester’s own Cornelius Eady.
The fall 2018 season of the Writers Forum, the College’s visiting author series, kicks off September 19. The renowned series brings writers — from the newly published to the highly lauded — to campus to read from their work and partake in question-and-answer sessions, all of which are free and open to the public. The authors also meet with English majors, offering insider insights and career advice.
This season’s flagship Writer’s Voice event will feature poet, musician, and Rochester native Cornelius Eady at the Rochester Educational Opportunity Center on November 7.
“I am thrilled with the lineup for fall 2018 — starting with Stephanie Powell Watts, a novelist who also has a piece in TIME magazine’s current special issue on the American South,” said James Whorton, Jr., professor of English and co-director of the Forum. “And we’ve got Weike Wang, whose first novel has won all kinds of awards, and who had a story in The New Yorker just a few weeks ago. Then we’ve got the amazing Cornelius Eady, a Rochester native who has gone on to national prominence — poet, musician, and founder of Cave Canem, which has provided important support to African American poets since 1966. The Eady event will be in Rochester, and we’re hoping he will bring members of his band Rough Magic for an evening of poetry and music.
“In nonfiction, we have our own Anne Panning on the lineup, whose new memoir will be out in September; and Elena Passarello, an actor/writer from Oregon whose book on famous animals has also been winning raves.”
“One of the coolest things about the Writers Forum is that our doors are open to everyone, no tickets required. Just show up, and if you like what you hear, you can spend the money that would have gone to an admission fee on a book, which you can also have signed on the spot by the author.”
The series recently celebrated its 50th year and launched a digitization project to preserve decades of interviews recorded in analog formats.
Fall 2018 Schedule
September 19
Stephanie Powell Watts
7 pm, Cooper Hall, NY Room
October 3
Elena Passarello
7 pm, Cooper Hall, NY Room
October 17
Weike Wang
7 pm, Cooper Hall, NY Room
November 7
Cornelius Eady
Writer’s Voice event
7:30 pm, Rochester Educational Opportunity Center, 161 Chestnut Street
The Writer’s Voice is made possible through the support of the Ingersoll Family Endowment Fund. Additional support this year has been provided by a grant from Brockport’s Promoting Excellence in Diversity fund.
November 28
Anne Panning
7 pm, Cooper Hall, NY Room
For more information, call (585) 395-2503 or visit the Writers Forum webpage.
