Creative Writing Faculty to Kick Off Working Writers Series

The Working Writers Series will kick off the fall semester with readings from Morris Collins, visiting assistant professor of English, and Leila Philip, associate professor of English at Holy Cross. They will each read excerpts from their work on Sept. 10 at 7:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library, Smith Hall. The event is sponsored by the English department’s Creative Writing Program and is free and open to the public. After the reading, there will be an opening reception to celebrate the program.

Collins, a novelist who received his M.F.A. from Pennsylvania State University, recently produced a debut novel titled “Horse Latitudes” (MP Publishing Ltd, 2013). He has also published a number of short stories and poems in Michigan Quarterly Review, Gulf Coast, Nimrod, The Los Angeles Review, and other journals. Collins is currently working on his second novel, “Sleepwalkers of the North Atlantic,” which he describes as “a dark comic picturesque Gothic.”

Philip is an award-winning author who holds an M.F.A. in fiction from Columbia University. Her books include “Why We’re Here” (Colgate University Press, 2010),“A Family Place” (Viking, 2001) and “The Road through Miyama” (Random House, 1989). A Guggenheim Fellow, Philip has received many other major awards for her writing including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Her newest book, “Water Rising,” forthcoming from New Rivers Press this fall is a unique collaboration of poetry and watercolors with artist Garth Evans. In the introduction, Matthias Waschek, director of the Worcester Art Museum says, “What emerges in this book is a stunning and original collaboration, and extends how we think about the relationship between painting and poetry.” Poet David St. John remarks, “The paintings and poems of ‘Water Rising’ celebrate our insistence that, in the face of much darkness, we will continue to live along the shores of light and great beauty.”

The Creative Writing Program will also be hosting the following speakers this fall as part of the Working Writer Series. Upcoming events:

Thursday, Sept. 24 at 7:30 p.m. – Reading by Sonya Huber, essayist, memoirist and author.

Wednesday, Oct. 21 at 3 and 7 p.m. – Screening of “The Grief of Others,” a feature film based on a novel by Leah Hager Cohen, the Barrett Chair of Creative Writing, and directed by Patrick Wang. Discussion with the novelist and the director will follow each showing.

Thursday, Nov. 5 at 7:30 p.m. – Reading by Rafael Campo, poet, essayist, and full-time physician.

Thursday, Dec. 3 at 7:30 p.m. – Panel discussion titled “Is Football Dead? Writings for and Against,” featuring Steve Almond, essayist, journalist and novelist, and Bill Curry, former NFL player, coach, and author.