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The free event is sponsored by the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series and the Student Fee Council. A reception will follow.
Dearinger, who teaches creative writing and literature, will read from his first novel, the gritty “This New Dark,” (Belle Pont Press). The book has been described by reviewers as “True Grit meets Twin Peaks.” Writer Rilla Askew said it “is part Southern Gothic, part speculative horror: rich and dark and terrifying, and so exquisitely written.” Writer Eli Cranor said Dearinger “has a damn fine first debut.”
Dearinger’s fiction, nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in magazines including “Bayou,” “The Southampton Review,” “Short Story America,” and “Heavy Feather Review.” He is the editor in chief of Emerald City, a quarterly online fiction magazine, and directs the Cow Creek Chapbook Prize, an annual poetry chapbook contest.
Washburn will read from her poetry collection, “The Book of Stolen Images” (Meadowlark Press), which earned the Nelson Book Award from the Kansas Authors Club. Poet Allison Joseph said the collection “manages that delicate tension between the beautiful and the scary in the stories we consider familiar.” Poet Shuly Xóchitl Cawood said that Washburn’s poetry “presses light against dark and bravely traverses the landscapes of environment, politics, and culture.”
Washburn, who directs the Creative Writing program at Pitt State, is the author of several other poetry books, including “This Good Warm Place: 10th Anniversary Expanded Edition” (March Street), and “Watching the Contortionists” (Palanquin Chapbook Prize). She is the editor in chief of “Poetry Cooperative / Heartland: Poetry of Love, Resistance, and Solidarity.” Her book “Arteries” will be published in May.
Both authors will have books available for purchase at the event.
