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Each year, usually in the spring, a distinguished author gives a reading and conducts
a workshop or roundtable with students, thanks to funding by a generous anonymous donor. Distinguished authors have included
W.S. Merwin, Marilynne Robinson, John Edgar Wideman, Ana Castillo, and Adrienne Rich.
2008-2009: Adrienne Rich
Renowned feminist author Adrienne Rich read
from her poetry at Herrick Chapel on September 25, 2008. Rich is the author of many
works of poetry and prose, including Diving into the Wreck, The Dream of
a Common Language, The School Among the Ruins, Of Women Born:
Motherhood as Experience and Institution, What Is Found There: Notebooks on
Poetry and Politics, and Arts of the Possible: Essays and Conversations.
Among her many awards and honors are the Yale Younger Poets Award, the National
Book Critic's Circle Award, the Lannan Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, the
National Book Award, and a MacArthur Fellowship.
2007-2008: Ana Castillo
Chicana novelist Ana Castillo read from her novel
The Guardians on April 10, 2008. A celebrated poet, novelist, short story writer, and essayist, Castillo
is considered one of the leading Chicana voices. Her many awards include the American
Book Award for The Mixquiahuala Letters, The Carl Sandburg Award, the Independent
Publisher Storyteller of the Year Award, and fellowships from the National Endowment
of the Arts in fiction and poetry.
2006-2007: John Edgar Wideman
John Edgar Wideman read at Grinnell
College on April 30, 2007. Wideman grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, where
many of his works of fiction are set. He is known for his works in several
genres: novels, short stories, non-fiction, and memoirs. His works include (among
others) Brothers and Keepers (nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award),
the memoir Fatheralong (finalist for the National Book Award), and the novels Sent
for You Yesterday and Philadelphia Fire (both of which won the International
PEN/Faulkner Award). His awards include a Rhodes Scholarship, the American Book
Award for Fiction, the Lannan Literary Fellowship for Fiction, and a MacArthur fellowship.
2005-2006: Marilynne Robinson
Marilynne Robinson visited Grinnell's
campus in the spring of 2006. Robinson is best known for her novels:
Housekeeping (which won a Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for best first
novel and was included in both The New York Times Books of the Century
and the UK Guardian Observer's list of the 100 greatest novels of all time),
Gilead (which received a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle
Award for Fiction), and the more recent Home. Robinson has also published
nonfiction: Mother Country: Britain, the Welfare State, and Nuclear Pollution and
The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought. Robinson teaches at the
Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa.
2004-2005: W. S. Merwin
W. S. Merwin came to campus in the spring of
2005. Merwin is a poet, translator, and environmental activist who lives on the
island of Maui. His first book, A Mask for Janus, was selected for the Yale
Younger Poets series, and his collection The Carrier of Ladders was awarded
a Pulitzer Prize. Migration: Selected Poems 1951-2001 won the National Book
Award and the Ambassador Book Award and was named as one of the 100 Notable
Books of the Year by the New
York Times. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize,
Merwin has been awarded the Tanning Prize, the Bollingen Prize, the Ruth Lilly
Poetry Prize, and a Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award.
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