The Visiting Writers Series at Hope
College continues its tradition of hosting both established
and emerging writers to engage the college and West Michigan
communities in public readings, panel discussions and
writing workshops.
The season begins on Tuesday, Sept. 26, at 7 p.m.
with Jill McCorkle and William Orem in the Knickerbocker
Theatre, located at 86 E. 8th St. Live music by the
college's Jazz Chamber Ensemble will precede the reading
beginning at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free.
McCorkle is the author of "Final Vinyl Days and
Other Stories," "Carolina Moon," "The Cheer Leader," "Ferris
Beach," "July 7th," "Tending to Virginia," and "Crash Diet:
Stories." "Crash Diet" (1992) was named by both the "New
York Times Book Review" and "The Atlanta Journal-
Constitution" as one of the best books of the year. She has
taught writing at the University of North Carolina,
Bennington College, Tufts University and Harvard University.
Orem has been honored by the Great Lakes College
Association with the New Writers Award for his book, "Zombi,
You My Love: Stories of Haiti." He is currently completing
his dissertation at Indiana University, Bloomington and
writing for National Public Radio.
Robin Hemley and Ofelia Zepeda will read on
Tuesday, Oct. 24, at 7 p.m. in Dimnent Memorial Chapel.
Hemley is the author of several works of nonfiction,
including "Turning Life into Fiction," "The Last
Studebaker," "All You Can Eat" and "The Big Ear," and
teaches creative writing at St. Lawrence University. Zepeda
is a professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona,
and is considered the foremost authority in Tohono O'odham
language and literature.
Kaye Gibbons will read on Friday, Nov. 17, at 7
p.m. in the Knickerbocker Theatre. Her literary debut,
"Ellen Foster," won the Sue Kaufman Award for First Fiction
from the Academy of Arts and Letters, and she has garnered
additional acclaim with her next five novels.
Honoring Black History Month and Women's Week,
Allison Joseph and Van Jordan will read on Thursday, Feb.
22, at 7 p.m. in the Knickerbocker Theatre. Joseph, the
first winner of the Ampersand Press Women Poets Series
Prize, has published three collections of poems, "What Keeps
Us Here," "Soul Train" and "In Every Seam," and teaches at
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Jordan teaches
in the undergraduate Writing Department and serves as the
1999-2001 Joan Beebe Graduate Teaching Fellow at Warren
Wilson College. His book, "Rise," is forthcoming from Tia
Chucha Press.
On Monday, March 12, at 8 p.m., Roscoe Lee Browne
and Anthony Zerbe will present "Behind the Broken Words" in
the Knickerbocker Theatre in conjunction with the Great
Performance Series. A performance of 20th century poetry,
drama, and comedy, the evening will include he poetry of
W.H. Auden, William Butler Yeats, Dylan Thomas, e.e.
cummings, T.S. Eliot, Seamus Heaney and more. Paid advance
tickets will be required.
Evelina Galang and Dana Levin will read on
Wednesday, April 18, at 7 p.m. in the Knickerbocker Theatre.
Galang is best known for her anthology of short stories,
"Her Wild American Self," which was recommended by "The New
York Times Book Review," and is also on the editorial staff
of "Screaming Monkeys," an anthology of Asian American art.
Levin teaches at the College of Santa Fe, and has received
awards including the 1999 American Poetry Review/Honickman
First Book Prize for her book "In the Surgical Theatre," a
1999 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a 1998
Pushcart Prize.
Additional information about the series may be
obtained through the Visiting Writers Series web site at
www.hope.edu/vws or by calling (616) 395-7893.