Sept. 21, 2004

Columbian College Announces Fall Readings Lineup

Programs Put Students in Close Contact with Working Writers

By Julia Jacobelli

Columbian College of Arts Sciences announced novelist Joyce Hackett will open the first of two visiting writer’s programs coming to the University this fall — the Jenny McKean Moore reading series and the Local Writers Initiative — bringing a mix of local and international novelists, playwrights and poets to campus.

Hackett leads off the 29th season of the Jenny McKean Moore reading series starting Sept. 23 at 8 pm in room B-07 of GW’s Media and Public Affairs Building. Following Hackett will be playwright Thomas Kilroy; novelist Thomas Mallon; poets Don Paterson, Fred D’Aguiar, Glyn Maxwell, Ruth Padel and Jo Shapcott; and poet Jody Bolz.

The reading series is funded by an endowment from the Jenny McKean Moore Fund for Writers, which co-sponsors along with GW the annual visiting writer position. Each year, a writer is invited to teach two courses a semester here; one course for GW students and the other a free workshop for the Washington community. Moore, who studied playwriting at GW, founded the fund offering free, community creative writing seminars and readings in 1976.

Hackett, this year’s resident writer and winner of the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for best work of fiction by an American woman, wrote Disturbance of the Inner Ear. The resident writers invited to teach at GW are a diverse group, whose work represents all genres. Past writers have been poets and creative non-fiction writers.

The reading series also includes writers of all genres, as well as of several different nations. Kilroy, one of the most significant playwrights of modern Ireland, comes to GW Oct. 19. Novelist, essayist, historian and reviewer Mallon won’t have to travel far for his visit to GW Oct. 28. The author of Bandbox, Dewey Defeats Truman, and Henry and Clara already teaches a class in the English department each semester. Five British poets — Don Paterson, Fred D’Aguiar, Glyn Maxwell, Ruth Padel and Jo Shapcott — from the new anthology New British Poetry, will read from their work Nov. 11. Jody Bolz, whose poetry has appeared in a wide range of publications, including The American Scholar, Ploughshares, Indiana Review and The Women’s Review of Books, concludes the McKean Moore series Dec. 2.

“What you can get out of a reading resembles what you can get out of a book: some readings transport us to a new place, a new way of seeing, a new range of feeling and understanding; or they offer us language to articulate and hold our own previously inarticulate thoughts and feelings,” said David McAleavey, professor of English and director of GW’s creative writing program. McAleavey has been involved with the Jenny McKean Moore Fund for Writers almost since its inception.

The Local Writer’s Initiative will bring five award-winning local poets and fiction writers for one-day residencies this semester.

Jean McGarry, chair of the writing seminars at Johns Hopkins University, will visit GW to read from her most recent book, Dream Date, Oct. 7.

Susan Shreve, who teaches in the Master of Fine Arts program at George Mason University, served as the second Jenny McKean Moore Writer in Washington during 1977–78. Shreve will read from her most recent novel, Plum and Jaggers, Oct. 12.

Elizabeth Spires is the author of five children’s books, including The Mouse of Amherst and five collections of poetry, most recently, Now the Green Blade Rises. A Guggenheim Fellowship winner, as well as the winner of two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Spires will come to campus Oct. 26.

The writers initiative will host Madison Smartt Bell, author of 11 novels, including The Washington Square Ensemble (1983), Doctor Sleep (1991) and Anything Goes (2002), on Nov. 3.

Irish musician, storyteller and writer Terence Winch rounds out the local writers visiting GW this fall. His most recent book of poems is The Drift of Things and his most recent work of fiction is That Special Place: New World Irish Stories. His reading on Nov. 17 will include music and performances of his writing.

In addition to their readings, the local writers will visit creative writing classes and interact with students during the day of their residency. The initiative is supported by the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, as part of the University’s Strategic Plan for Academic Excellence.

All of the readings begin at 8 pm. For more information, contact the English department at 994-6180.

Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu