Students in the Lewis Center for the Arts’ world-renowned Program in Creative Writing will present new work in a series of readings. On April 27 at 5:00 p.m. at Chancellor Green Rotunda on the University campus, students from spring workshops in fiction, poetry, screenwriting, and literary translation will read from their work completed during the past semester and selected by faculty. There will be two events during which 23 seniors completing a certificate in the Program will read from their thesis work, which they completed over the course of the past academic year. On May 2 at 5:00 p.m. at Prospect House, seniors will read from their recent work in poetry, screenwriting, and translation; on May 4 at 5:00 p.m. also at Prospect House, seniors will read from their recent work in fiction. The readings, part of the Program in Creative Writing’s Althea Ward Clark W’21 Reading Series at the Lewis Center for the Arts, are free and open to the public.
Through the Program, students can earn a certificate in creative writing in addition to their degree in a major. They have the opportunity to pursue original work in fiction, poetry, screenwriting and translation under the guidance of practicing, award-winning writers, including Jeffrey Eugenides, Jhumpa Lahiri, Chang-rae Lee, Paul Muldoon, James Richardson, Tracy K. Smith, Susan Wheeler, and Edmund White. Small workshop courses, averaging eight to ten students, provide intensive feedback and instruction for both beginning and advanced writers. Each year 15 to 20 seniors work individually with a member of the faculty on a creative writing thesis, such as a novel, screenplay, or a collection of short stories, poems, or translations.
On May 2, seniors who will be presenting work in poetry are Andrea D’Souza, Hannah Hirsh, Alec Lowman, Namkyu Oh, T.J. Smith, and Maya Wahrman. Andra Bailard and Zoë Perot will read from their work in translation, and Kelly Byrne, Charlotte Levy, and Olivia Lloyd will read from their work in screenwriting.
Seniors presenting work in fiction on May 4 are Bennett Alvaro, Katharine Boyer, Marta Cabral, Shruthi Deivasigamani, Martina Fouquet, Lauren Frost, Isabel Henderson, Lin King, Terry O’Shea, Emily Reardon, and Takim Williams.
Graduates of the Program include such well-known and diverse writers as Jonathan Ames ’87, Jane Hirshfield ’73, Jonathan Safran Foer ’99, Monica Youn ’93, and Jodi Picoult ’87, who will be the speaker for Princeton’s Class Day on May 30.
The Althea Ward Clark W’21 Reading Series annually brings a number of distinguished writers to campus to read and discuss their work. Writers who read from their works or lectured over the past academic year included Ciaran Berry, Edwidge Danticat, Natalie Diaz, Robert Hass, Marie Howe, Phil Klay, Jhumpa Lahiri, Dorianne Laux, Claudia Rankine, Mary Szybist, and Nell Zink. All readings are free and open to the public.
