Fall 2024 - Spring 2025
Constance Squires, February 27, 2025
An author whose latest novel explores the lasting impact of the Oklahoma City bombing will read from her work at 7 p.m. on Feb. 27 at Pittsburg State University as part of the ongoing Distinguished Visiting Writers Series.
The author, Constance Squires, teaches creative writing at the University of Central Oklahoma. Her latest novel, “Low April Sun,” weaves a story of loss, mystery, and the search for closure. Blending suspense with deep emotional insight, the novel examines how past tragedies continue to shape the present.
The reading will be held in the basement of the Wilkinson Alumni Center at the corner of Ford and Joplin streets. A reception will follow.
Rilla Askew, October 24, 2024
Acclaimed Oklahoma author Rilla Askew will read from her work at 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 24, in the lobby of the Bicknell Family Center for the Arts at Pittsburg State University.
Oklahoma-born Askew is the author of eight books, many of which are focused on her native state. Her work takes on themes of place, the outsider, religion and politics, greed and ambition, race, and women’s lives.
Her most recent book, a collection called “The Hungry and the Haunted,” is set primarily in Eastern Oklahoma during the 1970s.
Fall 2023 - Spring 2024
Fall 2022 - Spring 2023
Joe Dornich, October 25, 2022
Award-winning author Joe Dornich will hold a reading on campus October 25 as the next in the Distinguished Visiting Writer Series. Planned for 7 p.m., it will be held in the Governors Room of the Overman Student Center and is open to the public. In addition to his public reading, Dornich will visit creative writing classrooms and spend time with students and faculty while on campus.
S. Portico Bowman, October 3, 2022
Writer and former Pittsburg State University art professor S. Portico Bowman will return to campus on Monday, Oct. 3, for a reading of her debut novel, “Cashmere Comes from Goats.” The reading will begin at 7 p.m. in the Governors Room of the Overman Student Center. The event is free and open to the public; it is sponsored by the PSU Distinguished Visiting Writers Series and the Student Fee Council.
Joan Kwon Glass, February 21, 2023
Poet Joan Kwon Glass, whose recent collections have focused on grief, recovery, and life after great loss, will read from her works at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 21, in the Governors Room in the Overman Student Center at Pittsburg State University. The event is free and is sponsored by the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series and the Student Fee Council.
Fall 2021 - Spring 2022
Joshua Davis and Allison Blevins, April 28, 2022
Poets and alumni Joshua Davis (MA ‘09) and Allison Blevins (MA ‘11) will read from their work at 7 p.m. April 28 as part of the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series at Pittsburg State University. The event, free and open to the public, will be in the Governor’s Room of the Overman Student Center. It is sponsored by the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series and the Student Fee Council.
After graduating from Pittsburg State, Davis earned an MFA from Stonecoast at the University of Southern Maine, an MFA from the University of Mississippi, and is now a doctoral candidate in literature at Ohio University. A former John and Renee Grisham fellow, he teaches poetry, fiction, and multi-genre workshops, and high school English near Tampa, Florida. Recent poems have appeared in The New Southern Fugitives, Tinfish, and Apalachee Review.
After graduating from Pittsburg State, Blevins earned her MFA at Queens University of Charlotte. She is the author of the poetry collection “Slowly/Suddenly” (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, 2021) and the nonfiction collection “Handbook for the Newly Disabled, A Lyric Memoir” (BlazeVox, 2022). Her hybrid collection “Cataloguing Pain” (YesYes Books, 2022), a finalist for the Pamet River Prize, is forthcoming. She is also the author of "Susurration” (Blue Lyra Press, 2019), “Letters to Joan” (Lithic Press, 2019), and “A Season for Speaking” (Seven Kitchens Press, 2019), part of the Robin Becker Series. Blevins serves as the director of Small Harbor Publishing and as the executive editor at The Museum of Americana.
Whitney Terrell, March 24, 2022
Writer Whitney Terrell will be visiting PSU at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 24. The event will be in Grubbs Hall 107. The event is free, and is sponsored by the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series and the Student Fee Council. Whitney Terrell's novel, The Good Lieutenant (FSG), was selected as a best book of 2016 by The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and Refinery 29. It was long-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. He is also the author of The Huntsman (Viking), a New York Times notable book in 2001, and The King of Kings County (Viking), which was selected as a best book of 2005 by the Christian Science Monitor. He is currently an Associate Professor of English at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he teaches Creative Writing. He has also taught fiction at Princeton University and was the Hodder Fellow for 2008-2009. Whitney was born, raised, and today lives in Kansas City with his wife and two sons.
Fall 2019 - Spring 2020
Laura Moriarty, February 27, 2020
Author Laura Moriarty, whose book “The Chaperone” is particularly relevant to Kansans, will be reading from her work at 8 p.m. Feb. 27 in the Governors Room in the Overman Student Center. “The Chaperone” tells the fictional account of real-life Louise Brooks, the famous actress and Jazz Age icon, as she makes her way from Wichita to New York to make it big. The narrative is told from the perspective of her chaperone, who shares five life-changing weeks with the star as they make their way across the country.
Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman, September 26, 2019
Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman will read from her memoir at 8 p.m. in the Governors Room in the Overman Student Center. Her memoir, “Sounds Like Titanic,” was released this year by W.W. Norton & Company. The book focuses on the author’s time as a violinist in a shady orchestra whose composer simply plays popular music on CDs for the audience. Free to the public.
Fall 2018 - Spring 2019
Allison Blevins, March 21, 2019
Allison Blevins received her MFA at Queens University of Charlotte and is a Lecturer for the Women's Studies Program at Pittsburg State University and the Department of English and Philosophy at Missouri Southern State University. She has been a finalist for the Cowles Poetry Book Prize, the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, and the Moon City Poetry Award. Her work has appeared in such journals as Mid-American Review, the Minnesota review, Nimrod International Journal, Sinister Wisdom, and Josephine Quarterly. She is the author of the chapbooks Letters to Joan (Lithic Press, 2019) and A Season for Speaking (Seven Kitchens Press, 2019), winner of the Robin Becker Prize. She lives in Missouri with her wife and three children where she co-organizes the Downtown Poetry reading series and is Editor-in-Chief of Harbor Review.
Marcus Burke, April 11, 2019
Marcus Burke grew up in Milton, Massachusetts. Burke graduated from Susquehanna University where he played four years of Varsity basketball. Burke went on to receive his MFA at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop where he was awarded a Maytag Fellowship, an Iowa Arts Fellowship, and upon graduation, a competitive grant in honor of James Alan McPherson from the University of Iowa MacArthur Foundation Fund. Burke’s debut novel, TEAM SEVEN, was published in 2014 by Doubleday Books. TEAM SEVEN received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews, was long-listed for the 2015 PEN Open Book Award, and was one of the “10 Titles to Pick Up Now,” in O, The Oprah Magazine. Burke was the inaugural Creative Writing Fellow at Susquehanna University, 2016-2017. He is currently at work on his next novel.
Dr. Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, September 6, 2018
Poet and novelist Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg will be reading from her own work at 8 pm, Thursday, September 6, in the Governors Room in the Overman Student Center. The event is free, and is sponsored by the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series and the Student Fee Council. A reception will follow.
Dr. Elizabeth Dodd, October 4, 2018
Poet and nonfiction writer Elizabeth Dodd will be reading from her own work at 8 pm, Thursday, October 4, in the Governors Room in the Overman Student Center. The event is free, and is sponsored by the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series and the Student Fee Council. A reception will follow.
Elizabeth Dodd teaches creative writing and literature. Her latest book is Horizon’s Lens (creative nonfiction from University of Nebraska Press, 2012). She's also the author of In the Mind’s Eye: Essays Across the Animate World, which won the Best Creative Book Award from the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment in 2009; Prospect: Journeys & Landscapes, was winner of the William Rockhill Nelson Best Nonfiction Book Award in 2003; two collections of poetry, Like Memory, Caverns, which won the Elmer Holmes Bobst Award in 1992, and Archetypal Light, (University of Nevada Press, 2001); and the critical book The Veiled Mirror and the Woman Poet: H.D., Louise Bogan, Elizabeth Bishop, and Louise Gluck (University of Missouri Press, 1992).
Nickolas Butler, November 8, 2018
Fiction writer Nickolas Butler will be reading from his own work at 8 pm, Thursday, November 8, in the Governors Room in the Overman Student Center. The event is free, and is sponsored by the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series and the Student Fee Council. A reception will follow.
Nickolas Butler was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, raised in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and educated at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop. He is the author of the internationally-bestselling novel Shotgun Lovesongs, a collection of short stories, Beneath the Bonfire, and The Hearts of Men which has already been longlisted for two of France's top literary awards. He is the winner of France's prestigious PAGE Prix America, the 2014 Great Lakes Great Reads Award, the 2014 Midwest Independent Booksellers Award, the 2015 Wisconsin Library Association Literary Award, the 2015 UW-Whitewater Chancellor's Regional Literary Award, and has been long-listed for the 2014 Flaherty Dunnan Award for First Novel and short-listed for France's FNAC Prix. His short stories, poetry, and non-fiction have appeared in Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review Online, The Lumberyard, The Christian Science Monitor, Narrative, Sixth Finch, and other publications.
Fall 2017 - Spring 2018
Patrick Ryan, October 2017
Fiction writer Patrick Ryan is giving a reading at 8 p.m., October 26, 2017 in the Governor’s Room of the Overman Student Center; a reception will follow in the Heritage Room.
Cornelius Eady, November 2017
Poet Cornelius Eady, with the Cornelius Eady Trio for music and poetry, will be performing 8 p.m., Nov. 9, 2017 at the Miller Theater, Bicknell Center for the Arts; a lobby reception will follow.
Co-Sponsored by the Tilford Group.
Kevin Rabas, February 2018
Kansas Poet Laureate Kevin Rabas is giving a reading at 8 p.m., February 22, 2018 in the Governor’s Room of the Overman Student Center; a reception will follow in the Heritage Room.
Amy Parkinson, March 2018
Fiction writer Amy Parkinson is giving a reading at 8 pm., March 29, 2018 in the Governor’s Room of the Overman Student Center; a reception will follow in the Heritage Room. Co-sponsored by Women’s and Gender Studies Council for Women’s History Month.
Fall 2016 - Spring 2017
Pam Houston, April 2017
Pam Houston will be giving a reading in Grubbs Hall room 109 on Tuesday, April 11, 2017, at 8:00 p.m. A reception will follow the reading, the event is sponsored by the Distinguised Visiting Writers Series and the Student Fee Council.
Francine Prose, March 2017
Writer Francine Prose will be reading from her own work at 8 pm, ON Thursday, March 9, 2017, in the Miller Theater in PSU’S Bicknell Center. The event is free, and is sponsored by the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series, the Student Fee Council, and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program. A reception will follow.
Dennis Etzel, Jr., February 2017
Poet Dennis Etzel, Jr. will be reading from his own work at 8 p.m, Thursday, February 9, 2017, in the Dotty and Bill Miller Theater in the Bicknell Center. The event is free, and is sponsored by the Distinguished Visiting Writers series and the Student Fee Council. A reception will follow.
Chase Dearinger, November 2016
Fiction writer and Pittsburg State University Assistant Professor of English Chase Dearinger will read from his own work at 8 p.m., Thursday, on November 10, 2016, in Miller Theater at PSU’s Bicknell Center for the Arts. The event is free and is sponsored by the Distinguished Visiting Writers’ series and the Student Fee Council. A reception will follow.
Stephen Meats, October 2016
Poet Stephen Meats will be reading from his own work at 8 pm, Thursday, October 20, 2016, in the Governors Room in the Overman Student Center. The event is free, and is sponsored by The Midwest Quarterly, the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series, and the Student Fee Council. A reception will follow.
Amy Parker, September 2016
Fiction writer Amy Parker will be reading from her own work at 8 p.m, Thursday, September 22, 2016, in the Governors Room at the Overman Student Center. The event is free, and is sponsored by the Distinguished Visiting Writers series and the Student Fee Council. A reception will follow.
Fall 2015 - Spring 2016
Kathleen DeGrave and Skip Morris, April 2016
English professors Kathleen DeGrave and Skip Morris will be reading from their own work at 8 p.m., on Thursday, April 14, 2016, in the Governors Room of Overman Student Center. The event is free and is sponsored by the Distinguished Visiting Writers' series and the Student Fee Council. A reception will follow. Both longtime PSU professors, DeGrave and Morris will be retiring in May.
DeGrave has taught in the English department at PSU for over twenty-five years. She's published two novels, The Hour of Lead, which is speculative literary fiction, and Company Women, a working-class novel. She's also the author of a scholarly book, Swindler, Spy, Rebel: The Confidence Woman in 19th century America.
Paul "Skip" Morris II, will be reading from his creative non-fiction just after DeGrave. DeGrave describes Morris"s writing as, "refreshingly honest. He writes about difficult personal subjects and his prose recreates on the page the seductiveness of the illusions he had as a young man and the hard experience that pulled him back to the real." Morris says he doesn't write for the money. "Creative writing, really, all writing is such hard work, but it's such a good feeling when I actually put something together that works. And if I'm honest with myself, I love when the people I respect read my work and compliment me, tell me I'm a good writer."
Rilla Askew, March 2016
Novelist Rilla Askew will be reading from her own work at 8 p.m., Thursday, on March 24, 2016, in Miller Theater at Pittsburg State University's Bicknell Family Center for the Arts. The event is free and is sponsored by the Distinguished Visiting Writers' series, the Women's and Gender Studies Council, and the Student Fee Council. A reception will follow. This event is part of Women's History Month.
Rilla Askew's work, "will take your breath away," says Diane Posthelwaite of The Washington Post, the work of a "master composer." But what will most impress readers, Posthelwaite adds, is Askew's "warm heart." Askew, who was born in Oklahoma, explained that her birthplace has a particular power on her writing. She explained that she's been working on a book set in England, but the Oklahoma stories keep interrupting: "I'd say the place I come from is an inexhaustible well, not one that I have to go dip into to draw water, but one more like the artesian well on my dad's land where the water relentlessly rises to the surface."
Eric McHenry, February 2016
Kansas Poet Laureate Eric McHenry will be reading from his own work at 8 p.m., Thursday, on February 11, 2016, in the Crimson and Gold Room of Pittsburg State University's Overman Student Center. The event is free and is sponsored by the Distinguished Visiting Writers series and Student Fee Council. A reception will follow.
Eric McHenry's work is unique, "like no other poet working in America today," poet Linda Gregerson says. McHenry, who was named poet laureate of Kansas in April 2015, says the job brings its unique challenges. "I think if you're a poet and from Kansas, you spend a lot of time trying to justify poetry to Kansans or trying to justify Kansans to poets. Both poetry and Kansas are things that people are sometimes a little skeptical about. People don't know enough about them, so they jump to quick conclusions." McHenry knows a great deal about Kansas, given that his family has lived here since the mid-1800s. He is a fifth generation native of Topeka.
Jo McDougall, October 2015
Former Pittsburg State University Professor Jo McDougall will be reading from her own work at 8 p.m., Thursday, October 29, 2015, in the Governors Room of Pittsburg State University's Overman Student Center. The event is free and is sponsored by the Distinguished Visiting Writers series and Student Fees Council. A reception will follow.
Jo McDougall said her poetry is inspired by small things: "The world and the people in it; traveling out of my familiar world; the surprise of small things, such as the glint of a button on a dress; overheard conversations; reading poets whose writing style and subjects are very different from mine." These small things have led to big things for McDougall. The North American Review calls McDougall "the reigning virtuoso of the small lyric in English, able to capture deep emotion and knowledge in very few words." Poet Kelly Cherry says McDougall's poetry is "something like a miracle."
Lori Baker Martin, September 2015
Lori Baker Martin will be reading an excerpt from her novel, Bitter Water, at 8 p.m., Thursday, September 3, 2015, in the Governor's Room of Pittsburg State University's Overman Student Center. Martin's reading is the first of the year in the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series. The event is sponsored by Distinguished Visiting Writers series and Student Fees Council and is free of charge. A reception will follow.
Martin describes her novel-in-progress as, "set in pre-Civil War Missouri, and the plot hinges on a missing woman and involves passion, greed, murder, a forest fire, Ozarks witchcraft, ghosts, a mule that serves as a Greek chorus of one, and general mayhem."
Fall 2013 - Spring 2014
Amy Sage Webb, March 2014
The Distinguished Visiting Writers Series presents Amy Sage Webb reading from her fiction on Thursday, March 6, 2014, at 8:00 p.m. in the Balkans Room of the Overman Student Center on the Pittsburg State University campus. Webb, whose short story collection Save Your Own Life was published in 2012, teaches creative writing, literature, and literary editing at Emporia State University, where she was named Roe R. Cross Distinguished Professor. She shares co-directorship of the Creative Writing program in the Department of English and Modern Languages, and Journalism.
She has edited several literary journals, including Kansas Quarterly, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and Flint Hills Review. She served as managing editor for Bluestem Press, and she continues to serve on the editorial boards of several presses, and as a reviewer for numerous publications, contests, and arts commissions. Webb also serves as a consulting pedagogy specialist for Antioch University, Los Angeles, and has directed the pedagogy forums for the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. Her poetry and fiction appear in numerous literary journals, and she has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She lives with her husband in the Kansas Flint Hills.
Whitney Terrell, November 2013
Distinguished Visiting Writers Series Whitney Terrell will read from his fiction on Thursday, November 21, 2013, at 8 p.m. in the Governors Room of the Overman Student Center on the Pittsburg State University campus. Whitney Terrell is the author of The Huntsman, a New York Times notable book, and The King of Kings County, which was selected as a best book of 2005 by The Christian Science Monitor. He was the Hodder Fellow in fiction at Princeton University for 2008-2009. He was named one of 20 "writers to watch" under 40 by members of the National Book Critics Circle. He has written about the war in Iraq for The Washington Post, Slate and National Public Radio and his nonfiction has additionally appeared in The New York Times and Harper’s. He teaches creative writing at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he is the New Letters Distinguished Writer in Residence. His third novel, The Good Lieutenant, is under contract at Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Fall 2012 - Spring 2013
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, November 2012
On Thursday, November 15, 2012, at 8:00 p.m., fiction writer Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg will give a reading in the Governor’s Room at the Student Center. Mirriam-Goldberg is the final speaker in the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series for the fall semester. A reception with plenty of good food will follow in the Heritage Room. The reading and reception are free and open to the public.
Mirriam-Goldberg is Kansas poet laureate (2009-2012) and is the author of "The Sky Begins at Your Feet: A Memoir on Cancer, Community, and Coming Home to the Body." Her first novel, "Divorce Girl" tells the story of an imaginative, energetic teenager who has to deal with the divorce of her parents. The novel has won high praise. As one critic says, "Divorce Girl" is “wickedly, subversively funny . . . in its open-minded view of Jewish culture and knowledge of how children ultimately discover the stealth of their parents.”
Kevin Brockmeier, October 2012
On Thursday, October 11, 2012, at 8:00 p.m., in the Governors Room of the Overman Student Center, the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series welcomes novelist and short story writer Kevin Brockmeier to Pittsburg State University on Thursday, October 11. Brockmeier will read from his work at 8 p.m. in the Governors Room of the Overman Student Center. The event is free and open to the public.
Brockmeier is the author of eight books, including the novels The Truth About Celia and The Brief History of the Dead, and the story collection Things That Fall from the Sky. He has been awarded the Nelson Algren Award for Short Fiction, three O. Henry Awards, and a fiction fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Following the reading, there will be a reception in the Heritage Room of the student center, where Brockmeier’s books will be available for purchase.
Allison Joseph, September 2012
On Tuesday, September 25, at 8:00 p.m., in the Balkans Room of the Overman Student Center, The Distinguished Visiting Writers Series welcomes poet Allison Joseph to Pittsburg State University. Joseph will read from her work at 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
Joseph is the author of six collections of poetry, including What Keeps Us Here and My Father’s Kites. She is also poetry editor of the Crab Orchard Review, and Director of the MFA Program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. In 2012 she was awarded the George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs.
Following the reading, there will be a reception in the Heritage Room of the student center, where Joseph’s books will be available for purchase.
The Distinguished Visiting Writers Series is sponsored by the PSU English Program and the Student Fee Council.
The English Department and The Midwest Quarterly at Pittsburg State University are happy to announce that Ethan K. Smilie, Associate Professor at College of the Ozarks, and Kipton D. Smilie, Assistant Professor of Education at Missouri Western State University, will co-deliver the Twenty-Fourth Annual Victor J. Emmett Memorial Lecture on Thursday, September 28, at 8 p.m., in the Special Collections Room of the Leonard H. Axe Library on the Pittsburg State University campus. In their lecture, Professors Ethan Smilie and Kipton Smilie will discuss "Model Students: Beowulf, Chaucer, and Laura Ingalls Wilder." The lecture is free and open to the public. A reception will follow in the lobby of Axe Library.
The English Department and The Midwestern Quarterly at Pittsburg State University are happy to announce that Jennifer A Swartz-Levine, Associate Professor of English at Lake Erie College, will deliver the Twenty-Third Annual Victor J. Emmett Memorial Lecture on Thursday, September 8, at 8 p.m., in the Special Collections Room of the Leonard H. Axe Library on the Pittsburg State University campus. In her lecture, Professor Swartz-Levine will discuss "The Golden Lasso of Truthiness: A Complicated History of Women in/and Comics." The lecture is free and open to the public. A reception will follow in the lobby of Axe Library. 
The English and Modern Languages Department and The Midwest Quarterly at Pittsburg State University are happy to announce that Jeffrey Utzinger, Assistant Professor of English at Concordia University in Austin, Texas will deliver the 22nd Annual Victor J. Emmett Memorial Lecture on Thursday, September 17, 2015 at 8 p.m., in the Governors Room of the Overman Student Center on the Pittsburg State University campus. Professor Utzinger’s lecture is titled “ Beagles, Blueberries, and Consumerism in Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox.” The lecture is free and open to the public.
The English Program and The Midwest Quarterly at Pittsburg State University are happy to announce that Ron McFarland, Professor of English at the University of Idaho, will deliver the 20th Annual Victor J. Emmett Memorial Lecture on Thursday, September 26, 2013, at 8 pm, in the Balkans Room of the Overman Student Center on the Pittsburg State University campus. In his lecture, Professor McFarland will pose the question, “Was Ernest Hemingway a Narcissist?” The lecture is free and open to the public. A reception will follow in the Heritage Room.