The Reading Series
Department of English / Cornell University
Fall 2010 Reading Series
- 9/09 Julia Alvarez
- 9/16 Bonnie McEneaney
- 9/22 Gabriel Packard
- 9/30 Lydia Davis
- 10/14 Carl Phillips
- 10/26 Michael Silverblatt
- 11/4 John Murillo
ALL EVENTS ARE FREE and open to the public.
These events are made possible by the generosity of two anonymous donors who are alumni of Cornell University.
Go to the Writers at Cornell blog to listen to J.Robert Lennon’s interviews with our visiting writers: www.writersatcornell.com
September 9th Reading
- Julia Alvarez
- When: Thursday 4:30 pm
- Location: Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall
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- Julia Alvarez, Poet, Fiction & Nonfiction Writer
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Julia Alvarez was born in New York City and raised in the Dominican Republic, returning to the US at age ten. She is the award-winning author of numerous books, which span a range of genres and give voice to the stories of Latina women. Her best-known novels are How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1991) and In the Time of the Butterflies (1994), a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. Alvarez began her writing career with poetry, publishing her first book, Homecoming, in 1984 (with a second edition published in 1996). Her other poetry collections include The Other Side/El Otro Lado (1995) and The Woman I Kept To Myself (2004). She writes, “For me, poetry is that cutting edge of the self, the part which moves out into experience ahead of every other part of the self.” Alvarez has taught poetry and creative writing in schools around the country. She is currently a writer-in-residence at Middlebury College in Vermont and serves as an advisor to the school’s Latino student group.This event is co-sponsored by the Latino Studies Program.
September 16th Reading
- Bonnie McEneaney: A Reading for 9/11
- When: Thursday 4:30 pm
- Location: Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall
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- Bonnie McEneaney, Nonfiction Writer
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Bonnie McEneaney is the author of Messages: Signs, Visits and Premonitions from Loved Ones Lost on 9/11 (2010). After losing her husband, Eamon, a Cornell lacrosse legend, in the September 11th World Trade Center attack, McEneaney began to experience moments when she knew Eamon was communicating with her. As she talked with other survivors, she learned many of them had similar stories. In Messages, McEneaney shares the spiritual and paranormal experiences of those who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attack. Their stories suggest the bonds of love transcend the boundaries between life and death. Bonnie McEneaney holds a BA from Brown University and an MPS from Cornell. She is the editor of A Bend in the Road (2004), a collection of her husband’s poetry, and she currently serves on the board of Voices of September 11th, an advocacy group supporting the 9/11 survivors.
September 22nd Seminar
- Self-Discipline For Writers presented by Gabriel Packard
- When: Wednesday 4:30 pm
- Location: Room 258, Goldwin Smith Hall
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- Gabriel Packard, Associate Director, Hunter College Creative Writing MFA Program
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Gabriel Packard holds a BA in English Language and Literature from Oxford University and an MFA in Fiction from Hunter College. He has taught creative writing at numerous schools including Hunter, Wellesley, and Dartmouth, and he has worked as a researcher for novelists E.L. Doctorow and Peter Carey. His journalism has appeared in over 100 publications worldwide. Packard’s seminar on self-discipline will help writers and students develop strategies to establish a permanent writing time and to maintain focus during that designated time.
September 30th Reading
- Lydia Davis
- When: Thursday 4:30 pm
- Location: Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall
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- Lydia Davis, Fiction Writer and Translator
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Lydia Davis is a master of very short stories, some no longer than a sentence. Her collections include Break it Down (1986), winner of the Whiting Writer’s Award, Samuel Johnson is Indignant (2001), and The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis (2009), which will be out in paperback this fall. Her honors include a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award, and the coveted MacArthur Fellowship. Davis also translates literature from French to English. Her translation of “Swann’s Way,” the first volume of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, was highly acclaimed. The French government has named her a Chevalier of Arts and Letters. She currently teaches English at SUNY Albany.
October 14th Reading
- Carl Phillips
- When: Thursday 4:30 pm
- Location: Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall
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- Carl Phillips, Poet
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Carl Phillips studied Latin and Greek at Harvard University and taught high school Latin before beginning his writing career. He has published eleven books of poetry, most recently Speak Low (2009), a finalist for a National Book Award, and Quiver of Arrows: Selected Poems 1986-2006 (2007). His honors include a Pushcart Prize, a Lambda Literary Award for Pastoral (2000), induction into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Library of Congress. His work has been in several anthologies, including The Best American Poetry, and his poems have appeared in publications such as Atlantic Monthly, Paris Review, and Yale Review. Phillips is currently a professor of English and African & African-American studies at Washington University in St. Louis.
October 26th Special Event
- An Evening with Michael Silverblatt
- When: Tuesday 7:30 pm
- Location: Room 258, Goldwin Smith Hall
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- Michael Silverblatt, Producer and Host of KCRW’s Bookworm
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For over two decades, Michael Silverblatt has conducted interviews with the foremost authors of our time. Susan Sontag named him a “national treasure”, Norman Mailer deemed him “the best reader in America”, and Joyce Carol Oates called him “the reader writers dream about”. Silverblatt’s success lies in his deep love of books—he makes a point of reading all of an author’s work before an interview and draws his guests into engaging conversations, which go beyond the bounds of a typical interview.
November 4th Reading
- John Murillo
- When: Thursday 4:30 pm
- Location: Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall
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- John Murillo, Poet
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John Murillo is currently a visiting assistant professor of creative writing at Cornell University. Originally from Los Angeles, California, Murillo earned his MFA from New York University’s creative writing program. He has received fellowships from Cave Canem, The New York Times, the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. He recently published his first poetry collection, Up Jump The Boogie (2010). His work has also appeared in publications such as Callaloo, Court Green, Ninth Letter, and Ploughshares. He is a two-time winner of the Larry Neal Award for Poetry.
» For further information about the Fall 2010 Reading Series or about on-campus parking, contact kek77@cornell.edu or call (607) 255-7847.