Spring Zalaznick Reading Series exemplifies range of literary genres

The Spring 2019 Barbara & David Zalaznick Reading Series features award-winning authors reading from their work. Each reading is followed by a catered reception; some will include book signings. Books will be available for purchase courtesy of Buffalo Street Books. The series is sponsored by Cornell’s Creative Writing Program. All events are free and open to the public.

Robert Morgan and Ernesto Quiñónez open the series with the Richard Cleaveland Memorial Reading on Feb. 7 at 4:30p.m. in Rhodes-Rawlings Auditorium, Klarman Hall. Morgan is the author of 15 books of poems, most recently Terroir and Dark Energy, as well as works of fiction and nonfiction. Recipient of awards from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He is currently Kappa Alpha Professor of English at Cornell University. Quiñónez was educated in public schools from kindergarten to his master’s degree at the City College of New York. He is the author of the novel Bodega Dreams and an associate professor of English at Cornell.

Elissa Washuta will give the next reading on March 14 at 4:30p.m. in Rhodes-Rawlings Auditorium, Klarman Hall. Washuta is a member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and a nonfiction writer. She is the author of Starvation Mode and My Body Is a Book of Rules, named a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Artist Trust, 4Culture, Potlatch Fund and Hugo House. Washuta is an assistant professor of creative writing at The Ohio State University.

Poet and writer Claudia Rankine will close the Spring series with the Robert Chasen Memorial Poetry Reading on April 18 at 5p.m. in the Alice Statler Auditorium, Statler Hall. Rankine is the recipient of the 2016 MacArthur Fellowship and author of five collections of poetry. She is the recipient of the Poets & Writers’ Jackson Poetry Prize and fellowships from the Lannan Foundation and the National Endowment of the Arts. Rankine’s bestselling book, Citizen: An American Lyric, was the winner of the 2015 Forward Prize for Best Collection, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, the NAACP Image Award, the PEN Open Book Award, and the LA Times Book Award for poetry. Citizen also holds the distinction of being the only poetry book to be a New York Times bestseller in the nonfiction category. She teaches at Yale University as the Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry.

Worried about parking? TCAT bus route 10 Commons-Cornell loop leaves Seneca Street station every 12 minutes on Thursday afternoons until 6:08p.m. and stops outside Klarman/Goldwin Smith halls. After 6:08p.m., Route 10 runs every 24 minutes. Last trip from campus to downtown is at 7:51p.m. The cash fare for a single ride is $1.50.

For more information, visit english.cornell.edu/zalaznick, email creativewriting@cornell.edu or call 607-255-7847.