Nebraska Wesleyan University's Visiting Writers Series brings prominent national and international writers to campus. In addition to giving public readings, our visiting writers meet with students to discuss the craft of writing. The mission of this series remains the promotion of literary experiences with contemporary writers meant to enliven and to educate young writers here at NWU.

All readings are free and open to the public.

Charlotte Pence

Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 6:00pm
Elder Gallery, Vance D. Rogers Center for Fine Arts
Charlotte Pence is the author of two award-winning poetry chapbooks and the editor of The Poetics of American Song Lyrics, an essay collection on the similarities and differences between poetry and songs. Her first full-length poetry collection, Spike, is due out in 2014 by Black Lawrence Press. She is married to the fiction writer Adam Prince and will join the creative writing faculty at Eastern Illinois University in 2013.

Adam Prince

Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 6:00pm
Elder Gallery, Vance D. Rogers Center for Fine Arts
Born and raised in Southern California, Adam Prince has since lived in New York, South Korea, Arkansas, Nicaragua, and Knoxville, Tennessee. His award-winning fiction has appeared in The Missouri Review, The Southern Review, and Narrative Magazine, among others. In 2011, Narrative Magazine named him one of the best twenty new writers. He is married to the poet Charlotte Pence and is currently at work on a novel that takes place in Jakarta, Indonesia. He will receive his doctoral degree from the University of Tennessee in May, coinciding with the publication of his first book, a collection of stories called The Beautiful Wishes of Ugly Men.

John Walker

Tuesday, March 12, 2013 at 6:00pm
Elder Gallery, Vance D. Rogers Center for Fine Arts
John Walker is a transplanted Okie who calls Nebraska home. Retired from his first vocation of teaching philosophy at Nebraska Wesleyan University, he continues his second vocation of writing folky/bluesy songs and performing throughout the Midwest. He is a member of the Nebraska Arts Council’s Touring Artists Program. He performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts as Nebraska's representative to the Center's Statehood Days Concerts in 2003 and again in 2008 as a part of the Center’s celebration of “Arts Across America.” He writes songs and poems and stories because he can’t help it. He lives in Lincoln with his partner, Dena, and their dogs, Suzi and Sally the Westies and Muddy Waters the black Lab.

Oni Buchanan

Tuesday, April 16, 2013 at 6:00pm
O’Donnell Auditorium, Vance D. Rogers Center for Fine Arts
Concert pianist Oni Buchanan is also an award-winning poet. Her third poetry book, Must a Violence (University of Iowa) appeared in 2012. Her second book of poetry, Spring (University of Illinois Press, 2008), was selected by Mark Doty as a winner of the National Poetry Series, and her first book, What Animal (UGA Press, 2003), was winner of the University of Georgia Press Contemporary Poetry Series competition.

Jon Woodward

Tuesday, April 16, 2013 at 6:00pm
O’Donnell Auditorium, Vance D. Rogers Center for Fine Arts
Jon Woodward's books are Uncanny Valley (Cleveland State University Poetry Center), Rain (Wave Books), and Mister Goodbye Easter Island (Alice James Books). He lives in Boston with his wife, poet and pianist Oni Buchanan, and he works at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Past Visiting Writers