Reading Series

Beginning in spring 2007, the new director of the Creative Writing Program launched a series of intimate salons at the newly dedicated Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House. Students responded with enthusiasm to the events, especially to the informal atmosphere that encouraged conversations with writers whose work they admired. Several of the salons continued long after they were scheduled to end, with students and visiting writers caught up in lively discussion for hours.

The expansion of the Reading Series for 2009-10 is a continuation of this new tradition. In a typical week, graduate courses are offered Monday through Wednesday, and readings are held Thursday and Friday evenings. In addition to readings by today's most eminent writers and poets, scheduled events include faculty and alumni readings, New Salons, readings from newly published literary anthologies, as well as craft talks and panel discussions. There are two publishing seminars—one focusing on magazines and one on books—in which visiting publishing professionals offer resources and guidance. The Emerging Writers Reading Series continues to showcase the student talent of NYU’s Graduate Creative Writing Program. These student readings are held at the legendary KGB Bar in the East Village, and feature established writers as special guests.

In partnership with the online magazine Slate, the Writing Program has launched the new “Open Book” videocast series (www.slate.com), featuring interviews with writers about writing. The series launched in July 2008 with Junot Diaz; last year's interviewees included John Ashbery, Jonathan Safron Foer, and Charles Simic. Graduate students of the Writing Program are invited to studio recording sessions and to participate in informal Q&A discussions afterward.

Recent authors in the Reading Series have included: Eavan Boland, Anne Carson, Billy Collins, Lydia Davis, Junot Diaz, E. L. Doctorow, Mark Doty, Kwame Dawes, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Nathan Englander, Jonathan Safran Foer, Aracelis Girmay, Mary Gordon, Jorie Graham, Eamon Grennan, Kimiko Hahn, Terrance Hayes, A.M. Homes, Marie Howe, Major Jackson, Edward P. Jones, Ilya Kaminsky, Galway Kinnell, Yusef Komunyakaa, David Lehman, Phillis Levin, Philip Levine, Colum McCann, Rick Moody, Walter Mosley, Joyce Carol Oates, Sharon Olds, Molly Peacock, Marie Ponsot, Francine Prose, Adrienne Rich, Tomaz Salamun,  Brenda Shaughnessy, Charles Simic, Zadie Smith, Mark Strand, Michael Thomas, Jean Valentine, John Edgar Wideman, Charles Wright, and Adam Zagajewski.  

The Creative Writing Program has been grateful to partner with long-respected literary organizations in New York City to bring diverse programming to our students and public. Co-sponsors and partners have included:

92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center
Academy of American Poets 
Cave Canem Foundation
NYU Skirball Center for the Arts
Open City
PEN American Center 
The Paris Review
Poets & Writers
Poets House
Poetry Society of America
Rona Jaffe Foundation

Friends of the Reading Series have included Barbara K. Bristol & Galway Kinnell, Robert Holmes, the NYU Book Center, Poets & Writers, Inc., Lillian Vernon, and the Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund of the New York Community Trust.