Three distinguished—and varied—voices in contemporary literature will visit campus as Kelly Writers House Fellows this spring. Short-story writer and essayist Grace Paley, novelist John Edgar Wideman C’63 Hon’86 and poet Robert Creeley will participate in the second year of the program, according to Writers House faculty director Dr. Al Filreis, the Class of 1942 Professor of English.
The program is taking a somewhat different approach than last year, when journalist Gay Talese led a creative-writing class at the house. This time around, each writer will visit the house for a day and a half of activities, and their appearances will be linked to a seminar on “Contemporary American Writing” that focuses on their work taught by Filreis.
“We were very pleased with the results of the semester-long course taught by Gay Talese as the first Writers House Fellow,” says Filreis. “This year we wanted to try a series of fellows—to enable the students in the seminar to study a range of contemporary writers. Working with Grace Paley, Robert Creeley and John Wideman, the students in the seminar will study three significant but distinct aspects of the contemporary writing scene: Paley’s dense, edgy, political but finally comic short fiction; Creeley’s own masterful version of the ‘new poetry’; and Wideman’s novels with their urban settings, allegorical figures and tragedies.”
On the first day of their visit, the writers will participate in Filreis’ class, answer questions informally for an hour on the Writers House “green couch,” read from their own works and attend a private dinner at the house. The second day’s events include a live interview and brunch. Creeley is scheduled to visit on April 10-11 and Wideman, April 24-25. Paley is expected to appear in late February or early March.
