March 27, 2009
Little Grassy Literary Festival opens April 2
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The Graduate Writers Forum at Southern Illinois University Carbondale announces the inaugural Little Grassy Literary Festival.
The event features readings, a panel discussion and a book signing. All events are free and open to the public. Here is the schedule:
April 2
• 4 p.m. in the Student Center Video Lounge (Fourth floor), Jesse Lee Kercheval reading
• 8 p.m. in the Student Center Video Lounge (Fourth floor), Robert Wrigley reading
April 3
• 9:30 a.m. in the Student Center Auditorium, panel discussion with Jesse Lee Kercheval, Robert Wrigley and Greg Schwipps
• 11 a.m. in the Student Center Auditorium, Greg Schwipps reading
• Noon in the Student Center Old Main Lounge, book signing and reception
Jesse Lee Kercheval is the author of several books, including the poetry collection honoring silent cinema, “Cinema Moto,” which won the Crab Orchard Poetry Series Prize. She also wrote the short story collections “The Alice Stories,” which won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, and “The Dogeater.” A versatile writer, Kercheval also has a novel, a memoir, and a textbook, as well as several other poetry collections to her credit. Other awards include fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Radcliffe Research and Study Center at Harvard, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and more. Kercheval grew up in Florida. Now she is the Sally Mead Hands Bascom Professor of English and a founding director of the master’s of fine arts program in creative writing at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Robert Wrigley has six poetry collections to his credit, including the San Francisco Center Book Award winner, “In the Bank of Beautiful Sins” and the 2000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award winner “Reign of Snakes.” He has five Pushcart Prizes, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, Best American Poetry selections and a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship. Wrigley is originally from a coal mining family from East St. Louis. He is on the creative writing faculty at the University of Idaho.
Greg Schwipps is an SIUC MFA alumnus presently on the creative writing faculty at DePauw University. His novel, “What This River Keeps,” is due for release later this spring from Ghost Road Press. His essays and articles appear in such publications as In-Fisherman, Outdoor Indiana and Esquire.