Writer and former art professor to read at PSU 

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.  

Bowman taught for 20 years in Kansas, where she worked until recently as an art professor, art writer, and gallery director in Porter Hall at PSU.  

English Professor Casie Hermansson praised the book.  

“The novel tells an engaging — and at times urgent — story, but its real dazzle is in the moment by moment where we all live,” Hermansson said. “Portico’s prose is wonderful and does every one of those moments justice.”  

English Professor Chris Anderson is looking forward to seeing Bowman’s creativity in a new medium.  

“Creativity takes many forms, and it’s not easy to master more than one art form, but Portico Bowman has done it,” he said. “I'm eager to hear more about how her talent for visual art and her talent for writing fiction intersect." 

Bowman grew up on the Canadian Prairies and has lived in Massachusetts, California, and Hawaii.  

She received her MFA degree in ceramics at UT Knoxville in Tennessee and is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers in Toronto. 

She recently was awarded a $25,000 Canada Council for the Arts Research and Creation grant for her second book, “Would You Give Up Arms For Wings: a story inspired by the visionary life and writings of Paulus Berensohn.” 

“Cashmere Comes From Goats” was published in May by Stonehouse Publishing. Bowman lives with her husband Tom in Prairie Village, Kansas.