From the Director, Shara McCallum

July 2009

The Stadler Center's 2009-10 lineup offers all of the excellence and diversity that our students and supporters have come to expect. This year's Writers Series opens with a joint poetry and prose reading by new Stadler Fellow Will Schutt, a recent M.F.A. graduate of Hollins University, and 2009 Philip Roth Resident Mike Scalise, who works in creative nonfiction. In early October, Baron Wormser will join us as the Sandra and Gary Sojka Visiting Poet. Wormser will address questions about his life and work in an afternoon Q&A session and present a poetry reading in the evening. Later in October, we will present an Alumni Poetry and Prose Reading, a special event as part of Bucknell's 2009 Homecoming Weekend. Peter Balakian '73, Jim Zervanos '92, and Sally Keith '96, will join emeritus professor Jack Wheatcroft '49 for afternoon and evening readings of poetry, memoir, and fiction. The novelist Cristina Henríquez, who has been called one of "fiction's new luminaries" will present a fiction reading in November, and poet Rebecca Black will deliver the Eighth Drew Darrow Memorial Poetry Reading. Celtic storyteller Fiona Powell will again join us for a Saturday afternoon of storytelling for children.

Distinguished poet Tim Seibles will be with us for the duration of the spring semester as Poet-in-Residence. Seibles will present a poetry reading in January and, as a visiting faculty member in the English department, teach an upper-level poetry workshop for undergraduates. Michael Blumenthal, noted poet, novelist, essayist and memoirist, will deliver a poetry reading in late February.  The reading is in memory of Leo Francis Mackey. In March, performance poet Patricia Smith will join us for a poetry reading and a panel discussion on African American poetics. The panel will include Bucknell faculty members Carmen Gillespie and James Peterson, Poet-in-Residence Tim Seibles, and me. This year's Annual Student Reading in April features the winners of our undergraduate literary prizes, who will read from their poetry and prose. We will conclude the year with a second event for young people. Acclaimed children's book author and Bucknell alumnus John Stadler will read from his work on a Saturday afternoon in late April.

In the 2009-10 academic year, the Stadler Center will accept applications for the 2010 Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets, featuring visiting poets Laurie Kutchins and Dean Young, and the 2010 Philip Roth Residence for Creative Writing, which will be awarded to a poet. For more information on our programs and events, and for application instructions and deadlines, please go to the appropriate link.

With All Best Wishes,
Shara McCallum, Director

Stadler Center for Poetry
Bucknell University