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BUCKHANNON -- West Virginia Wesleyan College's low-residency master of fine arts in creative writing program will host a visiting writers series during the program's upcoming winter 2017 Residency.
These events are free and open to the public. The writers will be reading from their original work, and copies of their books will be available for sale. All readings will be held on Wesleyan's campus in Loar Auditorium of Loar Hall of Music.
• Diane Gilliam and Katie Fallon, 7 p.m., Jan 1.
Gilliam is the author of four poetry collections: "Dreadful Wind & Rain," "Kettle Bottom," "One of Everything," and "Recipe for Blackberry Cake." She has won the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Writing, a Pushcart Prize and the Ohioana Library Association Poetry Book of the Year Award for Kettle Bottom. She is the most recent recipient of the Gift of Freedom from A Room of Her Own Foundation.
Fallon is the author of "Vulture: The Private Life of an Unloved Bird" and "Cerulean Blues." Her first book for children, "Look, See The Bird!" is forthcoming from Hatherleigh Press in June 2017. Her nonfiction has appeared in River Teeth, Fourth Genre, Ecotone, and elsewhere, and she has taught writing at Virginia Tech and West Virginia University.
• Nickole Brown, 7 p.m., Jan. 3
Brown received her master of fine arts from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, studied literature at Oxford University and was the editorial assistant for the late Hunter S. Thompson. Her first collection, "Sister," was a novel-in-poems and "Fanny Says" is a biography of her grandmother from Kentucky. She was an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for four years until she gave up her beloved time in the classroom in hope of writing full time. Currently, she is the editor for the Marie Alexander Poetry Series and lives with her wife, poet Jessica Jacobs, in Asheville, North Carolina.
• Jaimy Gordon, 7 p.m., Jan. 4.
Gordon is author of the novel "Lord of Misrule," winner of the 2010 National Book Award for Fiction. She is also the author of the novels "Bogeywoman" and "She Drove Without Stopping," the novella, "Circumspections from an Equestrian Statue" and the fantasy classic novel "Shamp of the City-Solo."
Wesleyan's low-residency MFA in creative writing offers an apprenticeship model that enables students to earn a graduate degree without having to uproot their lives.
Students are on campus for an intense residency period of nine or 10 days each summer and winter and complete their semester course work through correspondence with a mentor. Launched by Irene McKinney, who served as West Virginia's Poet Laureate until her death in February 2012, the program continues to honor her vision: the dynamic faculty is committed to fostering the creation of fine literature, particularly literature that explores place and identity. This program is the only one of its kind in the state.
For more information about the readings, or about Wesleyan's creative writing program, please visit the MFA website at wvwc.edu/mfa/ or contact MFA Director Jessie van Eerden by emailing vaneerden@wvwc.edu or call 304-473-8329.
This project is being presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Humanities Council, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations do not necessarily represent those of the West Virginia Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities