Visiting Writer Series Continues with Robert Bensen in November

ONEONTA—Hartwick College’s 2023-24 Visiting Writers Series kicked off on Wednesday, October 11 with Shena McAuliffe of Schenectady, author of “We Are a Teeming Wilderness: Stories” and winner of the 2022 Press 53 Prize for Short Fiction, “Glass, Light, Electricity: Essays,” and “The Good Echo: A Novel.”

Professor Emeritus Robert Bensen will wrap up the fall portion of the series on Wednesday, November 8 with a reading from his seventh book of poems, “What Lightning Spoke: New & Selected Poems.” Bensen directed the writing program at Hartwick College from 1978-2017, during which time he taught composition, poetry, and fiction writing, and literature of the Caribbean, Native America, and the English Renaissance. Bensen’s writing has earned awards and fellowships from the National Education Association, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Newberry Library, the New York State Council on the Arts, and Harvard University.

In the spring, Hartwick College will host Yume Kitasei on Monday, March 4. Kitasei is a Brooklyn-based Japanese and American writer of speculative fiction. Her stories have appeared in publications including “New England Review” and “SmokeLong Quarterly. “The Deep Sky” is Kitasei’s first novel and her next book, “The Stardust Grail,” will come out in June 2024.

The 2023-24 Visiting Writers Series concludes with Joshua Zelesnick on Thursday, April 11. Zelesnick writes poetry and essays and spends time on the guitar or ukulele most evenings. “Insert Coin,” his first full-length collection of poems, was a finalist for the Marystina Santiestevan First Book Prize and the Trio Award; it will be published in 2024. Bonfire Books published his chapbook, “Cherub Poems,” in 2019 and his poetry and essays can be found in “CounterPunch,” and “Yes Poetry,” among others. Zelesnick has taught at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh and is now a librarian and creative writing teacher at a public school in Pittsburgh.

All the readings, presented by the Department of Literature Media and Writing and the Visiting Writers Series at Hartwick College, are free and open to the public. Readings begin at 7 p.m. in Eaton Lounge, Bresee Hall.

For more information, contact Associate Professor of English Bradley J. Fest at festb@hartwick.edu or (607) 431-4921.