Holy Cross Spring 2008 Visiting Writers Series

As part of the College of the Holy Cross Visiting Writers Lecture Series, the following writers will give readings during the 2008 spring semester. All readings are free and open to the public. This series is sponsored by the College’s Creative Writing Program.

March 13 Kelly Link 7:30 p.m., Levis Browsing Room, Dinand Library

Link, who lives in Northampton, Mass., received her B.A. from Columbia University and her M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her debut collection, Stranger Things Happen (Small Beer Press, 2001) was a Firecracker nominee, a Village Voice Favorite Book and a Salon Book of the Year. Stories from the collection have won the Nebula, the James Tiptree Jr., and the World Fantasy Awards. Her second collection, Magic for Beginners, (Small Beer Press, 2005) was a Best of Book Sense 2005 pick and was selected for best of the year lists by Time Magazine, Salon, Boldtype, Village Voice, San Francisco Chronicle, and The Capitol Times. Link has taught workshops at schools all over the U.S. and abroad. She is currently teaching classes at Columbia University and at Smith College.

April 1 Gerald Stern 7:30 p.m., Levis Browsing Room, Dinand Library

Stern, born in Pittsburgh, Penn. in 1925, is the author of 14 books of poetry including Everything Is Burning (Norton, 2005); American Sonnets (2002); Last Blue: Poems (2000); This Time: New and Selected Poems (1998), which won the National Book Award; Odd Mercy (1995); and Bread Without Sugar (1992), winner of the Paterson Poetry Prize. His honors include the Paris Review's Bernard F. Conners Award, the Bess Hokin Award from Poetry, the Ruth Lilly Prize, four National Endowment for the Arts grants, the Pennsylvania Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Jerome J. Shestack Poetry Prize from American Poetry Review, and fellowships from The Academy of American Poets, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. In 2005, Stern was selected to receive the Wallace Stevens Award, given by the Academy of American Poets as a lifetime achievement award in poetry. He was elected the first Poet Laureate of New Jersey and a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets in 2006. For many years he taught at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. Stern now resides in Lambertville, N.J.