Washington State University announces this spring’s virtual Visiting Writers Series, a collaboration between WSU’s Pullman and Vancouver campuses.
Each presentation below will take place at 6 p.m. on the date listed via YouTube Live. For more information on series presenters, including the YouTube links to upcoming readings, visit the WSU Visiting Writers Series website.
- The first online event takes place on Feb. 9 with a reading by Pulitzer-Prize winning poet Natalie Diaz. Diaz is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribe. Her second book, Postcolonial Love Poem, was published by Graywolf Press in March 2020 and was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Forward Prize, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2021.
- On March 3, Niimiipuu/Nez Perce writer, scholar, and Indigenous language activist, Beth Piatote will read from her work. She is the author of two books, including the mixed-genre collection The Beadworkers: Stories, which was long-listed for the Aspen Words Literary Prize, the PEN/Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction, and shortlisted for the California Independent Booksellers Association “Golden Poppy” Award.
- On March 23, Two Spirit Sugpiaq / Black / Choctaw poet and interdisciplinary artist, Storme Webber will provide a poetry reading. Webber is second generation Two Spirit and lesbian and her work is cross genre, incorporating text, performance, audio, altar installation, and archival photographs and collaboration in order to engage with ideas of history, lineage, gender, race and sexuality.
- On March 30, author, reporter, and science writer, Michelle Nijhuis, will discuss her most recent book Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction, shortlisted for the 2020 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, one of LitHub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2021, winner of the Sierra Club’s 2021 Rachel Carson Award, and one of the Chicago Tribune’s 10 Best Books of 2021.
- On April 6, Niimiipuu/Nez Perce and Tejana poet, scholar, translator, and visual artist, Inés Hernández-Avila joins the series. A professor of Native American Studies at UC Davis, Hernández-Avila is one of the six founders of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA). Her research focuses on the interrelationships between autonomy, the arts, spirit, and social justice, through the study of Native American/Indigenous poetry in U.S./Mexico, with a particular focus on Chiapas.
- The final talk is on April 20 and will feature ground-breaking lesbian Chicana musician and writer, Naomi Littlebear Morena. Morena is featured in the seminal third-wave feminist anthology, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. Her song, “Can’t Kill the Spirit” has been adopted in protests internationally from England to Nicaragua.
The WSU Visiting Writers Series brings noted poets and writers of fiction and nonfiction to campus for creative readings, class visits, workshops, and collaborative exchanges across intellectual and artistic disciplines. All talks in the series are free and open to students, faculty, staff, and the broader community.
