The Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series provides our community with diverse and rich literary experiences.
We are a student-run, faculty-organized series committed to hosting free events that are open to the public.
Every event offers opportunities for our local and student communities to interact with the visiting writers and discuss their craft — through panels, readings, classes and workshops.
November 13, 7 p.m., BSC’s Schaap Auditorium
“Jack Ridl shows us again... how to say the unsayable, how to listen for the unspoken, and how to meet this terrible and generous world.” —Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
The poems in Jack Ridl’s latest collection All at Once are each structured as a lyrical collage that gazes in a rearview mirror over his 80 years of being, in the words of William Stafford, “an alien in an alien world, making himself at home.” Nothing eludes this poet’s attention, realization, quandary, reflection, poignancy, joy. His poems, while written in a direct style and gentle voice, weave together what usually does not belong together, leading us to experience the reality that neither ourselves nor wherever we are is just one thing. In the words of his daughter when she was seven, “Daddy, ‘with’ is the most important word in the world because we are always ‘with.’” Each poem reveals the infinite realities of “With.”
“You won't soon read a more beautiful book, nor one so earthy, wise, delicious, and alive.” —Rick Bass
In The River you Touch, Chris Dombrowski and his partner, Mary, assemble a life as transplants to Montana based precariously on her income as a schoolteacher and his as a poet and fly-fishing guide. Before long, their first child arrives, followed soon after by two more, all “free beings in whom flourishes an essential kind of knowing […], whose capacity for wonder may be the beacon by which we see ourselves through this dark epoch.” And around the young family circles a community of friends — river-rafting guides and conservationists, climbers and wildlife biologists — who seek to cultivate a way of living in place that moves beyond the mythologized West of appropriation and extraction.
Tarfia Faizullah and Jamaal May Q&A
Aminatta Forna Reading
Students with Jamaal May at book signing
Hope College Jazz Ensemble performs before an event
Recent visitors include novelists Tim O’Brien and Aminatta Forna, poets Terrance Hayes and Joy Harjo, and graphic artist Jeffrey Brown. Our previous visiting writers are listed below.
- Previous Visiting Writers
-
A
B
MaryJo Bang Spring 1998 Russell Banks Spring 1996 BRIAN BARKER Fall 2016 Kim Barnes Fall 1999 Andrea Barrett Fall 1999 Lynda Barry Fall 2005 Quan Barry Spring 2004 Jackie Bartley Fall 1988, ’97 Rick Bass Spring 1993 Charles Baxter Spring 1992, ’00 NICKY BEER Fall 2016 Marvin Bell Spring 2015 Pinckney Benedict Fall 1996 Elizabeth Berg Fall 2002 Robert Bernen Fall 1993 Daniel Berrigan Fall 1997 Toni Blackman Fall 2008 Kimberly Blaeser Spring 1995 Katherine Bode-Lang Fall 2015 Eavan Boland Fall 1994 Shane Book Spring 2013 Robert Boswell Spring 2006 Marianne Boruch Spring 2004 Elizabeth Bradfield Spring 2011 Gwendolyn Brooks Fall 1993 Fleda Brown Jackson Spring 1990 Jeffrey Brown Fall 2012 Michael Dennis Browne Fall 1990 Ellen Bryant Voigt Spring 1993, Fall 1994 Oni Buchanan Fall 2012 Janet Burroway Fall 2003 Gabrielle Burton Fall 1987 Rainelle Burton Fall 2001 Benjamin Busch Spring 2014 Robert Olen Butler Spring 2003 C
D
TONY D’SOUZA Spring 2008 JIM DANIELS Fall 1990 EDWIDGE DANTICAT Fall 2016 TENAYA DARLINGTON Spring 2002 TODD DAVIS Fall 2013 PETER HO DAVIES Spring 2003 Melissa Delbridge Spring 2010 MICHAEL DELP Spring 1984, Fall 1989 TOI DERRICOTTE Spring 1997 Elizabeth Dewberry Spring 2003 DANIELLE DEULEN Fall 2012 SHARON DILWORTH Fall 1990 ANTHONY DOERR Fall 2008 Laura Donnelly Fall 2015 MARK DOTY Fall 2002 JACK DRISCOLL Fall 1989 Stephen Dunning Fall 1988 STUART DYBEK Spring 1984, Fall 1992 E
Cornelius Eady Fall 2007 David Harris Ebenbach Fall 2006 Clyde Edgerton Spring 2002 NANCY EIMERS Spring 2012 CARLOS EIRE Spring 2005 Lynn Emanuel Spring 1992 Percival Everett Spring 2007 F
Beth Ann Fennelly Spring 2004 Francis Fike Spring 1990 Karen Joy Fowler Spring 2008 VIEVEE FRANCIS Fall 2006, Spring 2017 Alice Fulton Spring 1989 G
M. Evelina Galang Spring 2001 Brendan Galvin Fall 1993 Cristina Garcia Fall 2010 Ellen Gilchrist Spring 1997 Aracelis Girmay Fall 2009 JAIMY GORDON Spring 2012 Dave Griffith Spring 2008 H
Barbara Hamby Spring 2006 Patricia Hampl Spring 1994 Joy Harjo Spring 1993, Fall 2012 Michael Harper Spring 1991 Terrance Hayes Spring 2010 Samuel Hazo Spring 2002 Robert Hemley Fall 2000 Amy Hempel Spring 1992 CRISTINA HENRÍQUEZ Spring 2017 EMILY HENRY Fall 2016 Gordon Henry, Jr Fall 1997 David Hernandez Spring 1995 Conrad Hilberry Fall 1986, ’91, ’98, Spring ’00 MARK HILLRINGHOUSE Spring 2013 Sean Hill Spring 2011 Edward Hirsch Spring 2013 Tony Hoagland Fall 1999 Linda Hogan Fall 1996 Jay Hopler Fall 2007 Andrew Hudgins Spring 1987 Harry Humes Spring 1994 J
David L. James Fall 2013 Gish Jen Spring 1998 Mat Johnson Spring 2013 Richard Jones Fall 1990 Van Jordan Spring 2001, Fall 2005 Allison Joseph Spring 2001 Diana Joseph Spring 2011 K
Laura Kasischke Fall 1996 Janet Kauffman Spring 1989 JesseLee Kercheval Spring 1999 Jamaica Kincaid Spring 1999 Galway Kinnell Spring 1991 David Kirby Spring 2006 Yusef Komunyakaa Spring 1994 Maxine Kumin Fall 1995 L
Li-Young Lee Spring 1986, ’91, Fall ’01 Lisa Lenzo Spring 1998 Dana Levin Spring 2001 E.J. Levy Spring 2015 VYVYANE LOH Spring 2005 Lorraine Lopez Fall 2005 M
Bob Mankoff Fall 2015 DOMINGO MARTINEZ Fall 2013 Michael Martone Spring 2007 Stefanie Marlis Spring 1991 Michael Martone Spring 2007 Adrian Matejka Fall 2014 Sebastian Matthews Fall 2005 Jill McCorkle Fall 2000 Kevin McFadden Spring 2011 Alison McGhee Fall 1998 Kathleen McGookey Spring 2002 Heather McHugh Fall 1994 Kevin McIlvoy Spring 2000 James McKean Spring 1988 Orlando Ricardo Menes Spring 2015 Wayne Miller Fall 2010 BICH MINH NGYEN Spring 2012 Judith Minty Fall 1988 Ander Monson Fall 2008 Rick Moody Fall 2003 Lorrie Moore Fall 1997 Thylias Moss Fall 1996 Julie Moulds Spring 2002 Andy Mozina Fall 2008 Lisel Muellar Spring 1990 N
Linda Nemec Foster Spring 1990 Nancy Nicodemus Spring 1990 Lewis (Buddy) Nordan Spring 2008 Naomi Shihab Nye Spring 1988, ’98 O
Joyce Carol Oates Fall 1997 Sharon Olds Fall 1992 William Olsen Fall 1990 MATTHEW OLZMANN Spring 2017 Steve Orlen Fall 2003 Gregory Orr Fall 2009 Simon Ortiz Fall 2003 P
Gary Pak Spring 2012 William Patrick Fall 1990 Joel Peckham Fall 2001 Miriam Pederson Fall 1991 ANGELA PELSTER Fall 2015 Ben Percy Spring 2011 James Perkins Fall 1987 Lawrence Pike Spring 1993 David James Poissant Fall 2015 Chaim Potok Spring 1995 Lynn Powell Spring 1998 ISMET PRCIC Spring 2014 Francine Prose Spring 2009 R
Nahid Rachlin Spring 2002, Fall 2007 Glenis Redmond Spring 2003 Donald Revell Spring 1988 Jack Ridl Fall 2006 Alberto Rios Spring 1996 Marilynne Robinson Fall 2005 Luis Rodriguez Spring 2000 Victor Rodriguez-Nunez Spring 2006 Dana Roeser Spring 2006 Anele Rubin Spring 2007 Mary Ruefle Fall 1990 Richard Russo Fall 2002 John Rybicki Spring 2002 S
Arnie Sabatelli Spring 2000 Mary Ann Samyn Spring 2007 Sonia Sanchez Spring 2000 George Saunders Spring 2010 NATALIE SCENTERS-ZAPICO Spring 2017 Herbert Scott Fall 1988 Linda Scott DeRosier Fall 2001 Heather Sellers Spring 1996 David Shields Fall 2010 Joan Silber Spring 2007 Sue Silverman Spring 1997, 2000 Charles Simic Spring 1989, 1994 Charlie Smith Spring 1989 Lee Smith Fall 1995 PATRICIA SMITH Fall 2013 Minton Sparks (w/John Jackson) Spring 2009 William Stafford Spring 1988, 1991 Gerald Stern Fall 1991 Susan Straight Spring 1992 Virgil Suarez Spring 1998 T
Lynne Thompson Spring 2009 Quincy Troupe Fall 1995 Chase Twichell Spring 1996 U
Leslie Ullman Spring 1992 Lee Upton Fall 1987 V
Jean Valentine Fall 1991, Spring 2013 W
Don Waters Fall 2009 Kellie Wells Fall 2003 Joe Wilkins Spring 2015 Nancy Willard Spring 1991 Jonathan Williams Fall 1986 Mark Winegardner Spring 2013 Jon Woodward Fall 2012 Charles Wright Spring 1990 Y
Mark Yakich Spring 2008 Al Young Fall 1992 David Young Spring 1994 Z
Ofelia Zepeda Fall 2000 Paul Zimmer Spring 1979, 1985, 1989, 1994
Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series
Lubbers Hall126 East 10th StreetRoom 338Holland, MI 49423
workP. 616.395.7620
jrvws@hope.edu