Student writers of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction will read from their work.

2011-2012 Spring Russell House Series organizers: Elizabeth Willis, Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing, Anne Greene, Director of Writing Programs, Amy Bloom, Kim-Frank Family Writer-in-Residence, Lisa Cohen, Assistant Professor of English, and Deb Olin Unferth, Associate Professor of English.

Support for this series is provided by: Writing at Wesleyan, the English Department, the Annie Sonnenblick Fund, the Joan Jakobson Fund, the Jacob Julien Fund, the Millett Writing Fellow Fund, the Center for the Arts, and the Shapiro Creative Writing Center.

Lisa Jarnot's books of poetry include Night Scenes (2008), Black Dog Songs (2003), Ring

of Fire (2001), and Some Other Kind of Mission (1996). Her acclaimed biography of the

San Francisco poet Robert Duncan was published by the University of California Press

this year, and her Selected Poems is forthcoming from City Lights Books in 2013. She

teaches poetry and works as a freelance gardener in Queens, New York.

Amitav Ghosh, The 2012 Joan Jakobson Visiting Writer

The interplay of history and fiction marks Amitav Ghosh's work, and reflects his early life in India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. His well-known books include In an Antique Land, Dancing in Cambodia, The Glass Palace, and Sea of Poppies. His new novel, River of Smoke, is a narrative of the nineteenth century heroin trade in India and Canton and is an international best-seller. He recently received an honorary doctorate from the Sorbonne.

Celebrated poet CAConrad will read from his recent work on Wednesday, April 25th at 8:00 P.M. in Wesleyan University's Russell House, 350 High Street, Middletown, CT.

CAConrad is the recipient of THE GIL OTT BOOK AWARD for The Book of Frank (Chax Press, 2009). He is also the author of A Beautiful Marsupial Afternoon: New (Soma)tics (Wave Books, 2012), Advanced Elvis Course (Soft Skull Press, 2009), (Soma)tic Midge (Faux Press, 2008), and Deviant Propulsion (Soft Skull Press, 2006).

Dorothy Wickenden is the author of Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West, an acclaimed biography, family memoir, and portrait of the settling of the American West. She has been the executive editor of The New Yorker since 1996 and prior to that was an editor at Newsweek and at The New Republic. She edited The New Republic Reader: 80 Years of Opinion and Debate and is on the faculty of The Writers' Institute at CUNY's Graduate Center.

Daniyal Mueenuddin, The 2012 Jacob Julien Visiting Writer

Daniyal Mueenuddin's first story collection In Other Rooms, Other Wonders was 2010 winner of The Story Prize and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. His stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, and other periodicals and in Best American Short Stories 2008 (selected by Salman Rushdie) and PEN/O.Henry Prize Stories 2010. A graduate of Yale Law School, he practiced law in New York for a number of years. He now lives on a farm in Pakistan's southern Punjab.

Edwidge Danticat is the author of Breath, Eyes, Memory; Krik? Krak! (a National Book Award finalist); The Farming of Bones (an American Book Award winner); and the novel-in-stories, The Dew Breaker. Her memoir, Brother, I'm Dying, was a 2007 finalist for the National Book Award and a 2008 winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography. Create Dangerously, her most recent book, is a collection of essays. She is a MacArthur Fellow and a recipient of the Langston Hughes Medal.

Tracie Morris is an interdisciplinary poet who has worked extensively as a sound artist, writer and multimedia performer. Her installations have been presented at the Whitney Biennial and the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning. She holds an MFA in poetry from Hunter College and a PhD in Performance Studies from New York University. Her newest poetry collection, TDJ: To Do w/ John, will be released in November 2011 by Zasterle Press.

"Israel Through Its Literature" by Amos Oz: Nov 3, 2011

Featuring Richard Deming and the 2011-2012 Wesleyan Student Poets. Oct 19, 2011