Fall 2017 Visiting Writers Series

Cornell College’s Center for the Literary Arts is hosting the following events in fall 2017:

Global Voices Reading: Dilman Dila and Esther Dischereit
4 p.m. Sept. 12, Hedges Conference Room, Thomas Commons

International Writing Program Fellows Dilman Dila (fiction writer and filmmaker from Uganda) and Esther Dischereit (poet, novelist, essayist, and dramatist from Germany) will present their work, with a reception to follow.

Reading and Celebration of Rebecca Entel’s New Novel
5 p.m. Oct. 5, Van Etten-Lacey House

Cornell Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing Rebecca Entel will read from her richly imagined debut novel, “Fingerprints of Previous Owners,” an exploration of the crushing weight of buried history and the sting of social injustice in a Caribbean resort built on top of slave plantation ruins. “Fingerprints of Previous Owners” has received stellar reviews in venues of the rank of The Chicago Review of Books, Kirkus Review, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. A book signing and reception will follow the reading. Hosted by the Center for the Literary Arts.

Essayist Kisha Lewellyn Schlegel Reading
6 p.m. Nov. 2, Van Etten-Lacey House

Distinguished Visiting Writer Kisha Lewellyn Schlegel will read from her work, including her debut essay collection “Fear Icons,” a timely lyric exploration of some of the most ingrained cultural icons of fear. The book, forthcoming in the fall of 2018, is the winner of the inaugural Gournay Prize from the Ohio State University Press. Schlegel holds an M.S. in environmental studies from the University of Montana and an M.F.A. from Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program; she is an assistant professor of English and Creative Writing at Whitman College in Washington. Her essays have appeared in the Tin House blog, The Kenyon Review, Conjunctions, and elsewhere. Hosted by the Center for the Literary Arts.

Elizabeth I—In Her Own Words
7:30 p.m. Nov. 6, Zamora’s Market

Grounded in the research of Carole Levin, one of the preeminent scholars of Elizabeth I, this two-women, one-act play brings to life one of the most illustrious women in history. Tamara Meneghini, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder in the Department of Theatre & Dance, embodies the queen weaving together excerpts from Shakespeare’s canon, as performed by Bernadette Venters-Sefic. Length: 55 min, no intermission. Hosted by the Center for the Literary Arts.

Visiting Poet D.A. Powell
4 p.m. Nov. 15, Van Etten-Lacey House

D.A. Powell will read and discuss his work. Powell earned an M.A. at Sonoma State University and an M.F.A. at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His first three collections of poetry, “Tea” (1998), “Lunch” (2000), and “Cocktails” (2004), are considered by some to be a trilogy on the AIDS epidemic. “Lunch” was a finalist for the National Poetry Series, and “Cocktails” was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry. His next two books were “Chronic” (2009), which won the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and “Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys” (2012), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry.