Fall 2023 Visiting Writers Series

Thursday, September 21, 2023: Join us for a reading with Purdue MFA Alum John Milas as he reads from his novel, The Militia House! 

Thursday, September 28, 2023: Join us for a Poetry Reading and Book Signing with Diana Khoi Nguyen!

History of Purdue Literary Awards and Visiting Writers

Literary Awards has been an institution at Purdue since 1928. Speakers have included: Sherwood Anderson, Tennessee Williams, Thornton Wilder, Eudora Welty, Robert Frost, Katharine Ann Porter, Saul Bellow, Gwendolyn Brooks, John Ashbery, Grace Paley, Adrienne Rich, Edward Albee, Derek Walcott, Louise Erdrich, Russell Banks, Seamus Heaney, Tony Kushner, Charles Wright, Maxine Hong Kingston, Sherman Alexie, Michael Chabon, Rita Dove, Annie Proulx, Charles Simic and Michael Cunningham. For more information about Literary Awards, please visit: http://www.cla.purdue.edu/literary-awards/

Recent Visiting Writers to the MFA program have included: Brigit Pegeen Kelly, Li-Young Lee, Edward P. Jones, Russell Edson, Andre Dubus III, Alicia Ostriker, Quan Barry, Michael Martone, Heather McHugh, Steve Yarbrough, Ellen Bryant Voigt, Denise Duhamel, Charles Baxter, Joyce Carol Oates, Adam Zagajewski, Peter Ho Davies, Jane Hamilton, Lan Samantha Chang, A. Van Jordan, Carl Phillips, Helena María Viramontes, Natasha Trethewey, Dorothy Allison, Dan Chaon, Julie Otsuka, Maurice Manning, Edith Pearlman, Jess Walter, Terrance Hayes and Antonya Nelson.