Spring Reading Series Begins on February 26

The English Department will bring three writers to campus as part of the annual Spring Reading Series. All readings are in Schar 138 starting at 4:00 p.m.

Erika Krouse - February 26

Leila Philip - April 9

Daneen Wardrop - April 23


Dr. Joe Mackall provides an overview of the prose writers in the series.

Erika Krouse

I’m really excited about the prose writers featured in this year’s Reading Series. Erika Krouse and Leila Philip are two extraordinary writers and teachers. The New York Times Book Review called Erika’s debut collection of stories, Come Up and See Me Sometime, “potent” and “original.” The Times also wrote “Krouse leaves us with a feeling of unbounded, exhilarating possibility.” Erika is also the author of the novel Contenders. Erika’s fiction has appeared in a variety of publications, including the New Yorker, the Atlantic and the Kenyon Review. Of course we could court many fiction writers who have great publications, but that’s never enough for us. We need people who are student-centered teachers. Erika Krouse is a caring teacher and a terrific person. She’s already agreed to attend my English 102 class and to talk to creative writing students as well. Erika has a great sense of humor and a quirky personality.

Another great person and student-centered teacher is our nonfiction writer Leila Philip. Leila writes poetry and nonfiction.

Leila Philip

 
Along with her memoir, A Family Place: A Hudson Valley Farm, Leila has also written a collaborative work with her husband painter Garth Evans. The collaboration, Water Rising, includes Leila’s poems on nature, beauty and loss with Garth’s abstract water colors. Leila is also a columnist for the Boston Globe. She’s currently writing a book about fur trappers, for which she has spent hours with trappers in New England, even going so far as acquiring a trapper’s license.

Dr. Deborah Fleming offers some background on the poet in the series.

Daneen Wardrop

Winner of the 2015 Richard Snyder Publication Prize from Ashland Poetry Press, Daneen Wardrop's Life As It, chosen by David St. John, is a collection of prose and free verse poems that brings together images from centuries ago as well as today and makes us aware of the transfiguration of the commonplace. Laura Kasischke called it "poetry of both narrative and musical accomplishments." Daneen Wardrop has published two previous collections of poetry as well as several books of literary history. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and the Poetry Society of America Robert H. Winner Award. She teaches American literature at Western Michigan University.