Gonzaga U. Visiting Writers Series Includes Pulitzer Winner, Ex-U.S. Poet Laureate

Patricia Henley will read from her works at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 26 in the Jepson Center’s Wolff Auditorium.

SPOKANE, Wash. – A $10,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant, Gonzaga University’s first award from the NEA, will allow Professor Tod Marshall to continue the Gonzaga University Visiting Writers Series’ free public readings this fall and in spring 2012. The lineup includes the 2011 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction, and a former U.S. Poet Laureate.

The series hosts nationally and regionally prominent writers in readings of their work. All five remaining readings in the 2011-12 series begin at 7:30 p.m.; all but the Oct. 26 reading by Patricia Henley will be in the Cataldo Hall Globe Room. Henley’s reading at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 26 will be held in the Jepson Center’s Wolff Auditorium.

Patricia Henley, who has written two chapbooks of poetry, three short story collections, two novels, a stage play, and numerous essays, will read from her works on Wednesday, Oct. 26 in the Jepson Center’s Wolff Auditorium. Henley’s first book of stories, “Friday Night at Silver Star” (Graywolf, 1986), won the Montana First Book Award. Her first novel, “Hummingbird House” (MacMurray & Beck, 1999), was a finalist for the National Book Award. She has taught for 24 years in the Master of Fine Arts program at Purdue University.

Atonya Nelson will read from her works on Nov. 16. Nelson attended the University of Kansas and the University of Arizona, where she received her MFA (1986). She authored four short story collections and four novels, and her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, Harpers, Redbook and other magazines, and anthologies such as Prize Stories, the O’Henry Awards, and “Best American Short Stories.” She received an NEA grant and 2000-01 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Jennifer Egan, author of “The Invisible Circus,” which was released as a feature film by Fine Line in 2001, will read from her works on Jan. 31. Egan also wrote “Emerald City and Other Stories,” “Look at Me,” which was nominated for the National Book Award in 2001, and the best-selling “The Keep.” Her new book, “A Visit from the Goon Squad,” is a national best-seller, winning the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and the 2011 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. Also a journalist, Egan frequently writes for New York Times Magazine.

Robert Pinsky, whose landmark, best-selling translation of  “The Inferno of Dante,” received the Los Angeles Times’ Book Award in poetry and the Howard Morton Landon Prize for translation, will read from his works Feb. 28. Pinsky’s first two terms as U.S. Poet Laureate were so dynamic the Library of Congress appointed him to an unprecedented third term. Pinsky has been dedicated to identifying and invigorating poetry’s place in the world. As Poet Laureate, Pinsky founded the Favorite Poem Project, in which thousands of Americans from every state shared favorite poems. His poems have earned praise for their wild musical energy and ambitious range. “Selected Poems,” (spring 2011) is his most recent volume of poetry. His “The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems 1966-1996” was a Pulitzer Prize nominee and received the Lenore Marshall Award and the Ambassador Book Award of the English Speaking Union. His prose book, “The Life of David,” is a lively retelling and examination of the David stories.

Author of a debut collection of short stories titled, “American Masculine,” Gonzaga’s own Shann Ray will read from his works on April 4. Ray has been awarded for both his poetry and short stories. His work has appeared in some of the nation’s leading literary venues including McSweeney’s, Narrative, StoryQuarterly, Five Chapters and Poetry International. He grew up in Montana, spent part of his childhood on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, and now teaches leadership studies and forgiveness at GU.

Poets James Galvin and Dora Malech started this year’s series when they read their works on Sept. 15. Galvin has authored several collections, including “Resurrection Update: Collected Poems, 1975-1997,” and “X” (2003), as well as the novel “Fencing in the Sky” (1999), and “The Meadow” (1992), a prose meditation on the landscape of the Wyoming-Colorado state line and those who live there. Malech’s poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, Poetry London, and elsewhere. She is the author of “Shore Ordered Ocean” (2010), and “Say So,” (to be released). This fall, she is poet-in-residence at Saint Mary’s College of California.

This series links prominent writers with diverse perspectives with an Inland Northwest audience. All authors give free readings of their work with free Q-and-A sessions to follow. Below is the schedule for the remaining public readings.

• Oct. 26, 7:30 p.m. Patricia Henley       Jepson Center, Wolff Auditorium
• Nov. 16, 7:30 p.m. Antonya Nelson      Cataldo Hall, Globe Room
• Jan. 31, 7:30 p.m. Jennifer Egan          Cataldo Hall, Globe Room
• Feb. 28, 7:30 p.m. Robert Pinsky          Cataldo Hall, Globe Room
• April 4, 7:30 p.m. Shann Ray                 Cataldo Hall, Globe Room

Additional funding for this year’s series comes from Gonzaga, scholarships from Pennaluna and Company and the Davenport Hotel. Tod Marshal, a poet and associate English professor at Gonzaga, started the series in 2007. For more information, please contact Tod Marshall at (509) 313-6681 or via e-mail.