Cecil S. Giscombe — renown poet, essayist, teacher, traveler and professor of writing and literature at University of California Berkeley — will headline Washington State University’s Visiting Writers Series with a reading March 23.
The event begins at 7 p.m. on YouTube live and is free and open to the public. Giscombe will also lead a three-day one-credit poetry workshop March 22–24 for WSU students.
The former editor of Cornell University’s EPOCH Magazine, Giscombe is also the author of many books of poetry and essays, including the forthcoming poetry collection, Similarly (Dalkey Archive). His most recent books are Ohio Railroads (2014, a narrative poem, including maps), Border Towns (2016, essays about poetry), and Overlapping Apexes (2017, a narrative poem). An intrepid world traveler, Giscombe has spent the last 30 years exploring the United States and Canada on his bicycle, often on the road for weeks at a time. His poetry books in progress are Negro Mountain and Train Music, a collaboration with the painter and collagist Judith Margolis that chronicles the cross-country train trip the two made together in 2017 during which they explored the social spaces of white supremacy.
In addition to reading from his work, Giscombe will lead an evening one-credit poetry workshop for WSU students that revolves around the idea that poetry and essays (life-writing, creative nonfiction, “essaying,” etc.) have similar aims or field-marks — both are literary vehicles of exploration and documentation, both value experimental approaches, and both traffic with versions of the incomplete. The workshop, which runs from 6–8:30 p.m., March 22–24, is entitled Writing as Social Practice. Students interested in registering for the workshop can contact Leisa McCormick at: lmccormick@wsu.edu or 509-335-0496.
The WSU Visiting Writers Series is grateful to our collaborators for C.S. Giscombe’s Reading and Workshop: WSU Vancouver Office of Equity and Diversity; WSU Vancouver Office of Student Equity and Outreach; WSU Vancouver Office of Academic Affairs; WSU Vancouver College of Arts and Sciences; WSU Tri‑Cities Writing Center; WSU Common Reading Program; ASWSU; Landescapes, The Student Literary Journal.
For more information, contact Cameron McGill (cameron.mcgill@wsu.edu) or Debbie Lee at (deblee@wsu.edu).
