Campus Stories - Creative Writing
Spring quarter 2019 guest artists
Over 30 departments, centers and campus organizations host guest artists each quarter. The Architectural Design Program and the University Architect/Campus Planning and Design Office co-present the annual Architecture & Landscape–Spring Lecture Series, and the theme this year is “Architecture of Humanity.” The series features five designers who believe architecture has a much greater responsibility beyond aesthetics….
British novelist Zadie Smith to speak at Stanford
Zadie Smith, a prize-winning British novelist, essayist and short-story writer, will speak at Stanford to deliver the 2019 Stanford Presidential Lecture in the Humanities and Arts on Thursday, March 7. As part of the event, Smith will read from one of her works and then converse with Harry Elam Jr., vice president for the arts…
Poet Eavan Boland recites new poem at UN event honoring Irish women’s suffrage
English professor and acclaimed poet EAVAN BOLAND recited a poem at the United Nations headquarters Wednesday, Dec. 5, in celebration of 100 years since the women of Ireland were granted suffrage. Boland, the Bella Mabury and Eloise Mabury Knapp Professor in Humanities and the Melvin and Bill Lane Director of the Creative Writing Program, read an excerpt from…
Stanford English students, researchers help unearth new insights about Virginia Woolf’s press, other early 20th-century authors
Using the latest tools in digitization and data analysis, a group of Stanford English students is helping scholars uncover new insights about British writer Virginia Woolf and the history of literary movements in the early 20th century. Until now, no one has studied in detail Woolf’s impact on the publishing industry of that era and…
Samuel Beckett letter at Stanford opens new opportunities for scholarship
A coffee-stained handwritten letter from renowned Irish playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett to Radomir Konstantinović, a Yugoslav and Serbian writer and philosopher, is now available in Stanford Libraries’ SPECIAL COLLECTIONS. The Beckett-Konstantinović letter at Stanford is one of only about two dozen surviving letters between the two literary figures. Much of their correspondence was lost when Konstantinović’s summer home…
Literature professor collaborates with students and artist on poetry project
When poet and Stanford Professor Amir Eshel saw a series of drawings in the studio of German artist Gerhard Richter, he had an experience many would describe as spiritual. Eshel was in Cologne, Germany to interview Richter for his forthcoming book Poetic Thinking Today (Stanford University Press, 2019). He wanted to learn more about the artist’s four-part…
Stegner Fellow Jamel Brinkley’s novel named a Finalist for the National Book Award
Jamel Brinkley is a graduate of Columbia University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He has received fellowships from Kimbilio Fiction, the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, and Stanford University where he is currently a Stegner Fellow. A Lucky Man is his first book. He lives in California.
Stanford unveils new Presidential Residencies on the Future of the Arts and welcomes international guest artists
Artists from across the globe come to Stanford to perform, create and engage. The 80-plus guest artists visiting campus this fall are hosted by over 20 Stanford departments, centers and programs. Some of the artists will be at Stanford for a single public event and others will stay for an extended visit for deep engagement…
Hernán Diaz and Robert Moor win Stanford Libraries’ 2018 Saroyan Prize for Writing
Hernán Diaz and Robert Moor are the 2018 winners of the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. The prize, established in 2003 by Stanford Libraries and the William Saroyan Foundation, commemorates Saroyan’s life and legacy, and just as importantly, honors emerging authors who have found a distinctive creative voice. Diaz and Moor will each receive…
Student Arts Grants: A Year in Photos 2017-18
This year’s Student Arts Grants supported a wide range of projects across the Stanford campus. The projects covered many genres including contemporary plays, documentary and fiction film shorts, musical theater, painting, photography, drag performance, and more. Many of this year’s grantees utilized Roble Arts Gym as a rehearsal/work space as well as a venue for their exhibits…
Stand and fight for justice, urges poet Elizabeth Alexander to graduating Stanford students
In a world filled with beauty and possibility but also violence and injustice, poet and scholar Elizabeth Alexander calls for actions that are fair, just and kind. Video by Kurt Hickman Baccalaureate, a multifaith celebration for graduating students, featured poet Elizabeth Alexander, a student reflection and spiritual music. Alexander delivered the call for action as…
Poet Eavan Boland elected to the Royal Irish Academy
The Royal Irish Academy elected English professor and acclaimed poet EAVAN BOLAND as an honorary member. Boland, the Bella Mabury and Eloise Mabury Knapp Professor in Humanities and director of the Creative Writing Program, was among 28 new members admitted for “their exceptional contribution to the sciences, humanities and social sciences as well as to public service,”…
Louis Menand unmasks the rock god in his cultural history of rock’n’roll
Who invented rock’n’roll? It’s not who you think. At the Stanford Humanities Center’s 2018 Harry Camp Memorial Lecture, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and cultural critic Louis Menand exposed rock’n’roll’s origin myths, shedding light on the power of media to shape cultural myths today. In his lecture, titled “Conditions for the Possibility of Rock’n’Roll: An Exercise in Cultural History,” Menand…
Stanford’s spring quarter guest artists
Guest artists are all over campus this spring. Indie rock band Glass Animals play Stanford Stadium; the open-air literary celebration Stories of Exile, Reckoning and Hope takes place on the main stage in White Plaza; Mina Morita directs Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Szechwan in Roble Studio Theater; and Stanford Live’s popular Cabaret series continues in Bing’s cozy…
Stanford senior turned novelist talks about her book, “Frat Girl”
Menlo Park’s Kepler’s Books and Magazines recently helped senior KILEY ROACHE launch her new novel, Frat Girl. Here is how the website Goodreads describes the book: “For Cassandra Davis, the F-word is fraternity – specifically, Delta Tau Chi, a house on probation and on the verge of being banned from campus. Accused of offensive, sexist behavior, they have one year to clean…
Stanford Stegner Fellows lead and influence with words
Imagination can be supported. Hands can be guided, and craft can be improved. The workshop can reveal the best a writer has to offer. Wallace Stegner founded the Stanford Creative Writing Program and Writing Fellowships in 1946. (Image credit: Mary Stegner) These beliefs have been the guiding principles of the Stegner Fellows program since its inception…
