We invite you to attend readings and events hosted by the Department of English Language and Literature each semester. If you would like to receive reminders and updates on readings and other creative writing events, please subscribe to our listserv by sending an email with "subscribe cwrite" in the body of the message.
Join us for readings by CMU English department faculty members each semester.
Founded through a gift from the Meijer Foundation, the Meijer Visiting Writers Series hosts readings each semester. You can view videos of past readings on our Creative Writing Facebook page.
Each fall, we invite the community to join us from sunrise through the afternoon in the Fabiano Botanical Garden next to Park Library for our annual marathon reading of Walt Whitman's classic Leaves of Grass. All are welcome to take turns reading or just listen and enjoy hearing others read.
Founded and facilitated by Robert Fanning, CMU Professor of Creative Writing; since 2009 the Wellspring Literary Series has provided a forum for the Mt. Pleasant and Central Michigan University community to hear the work of established and emerging regional writers. The Wellspring Literary Series has become a destination venue for Michigan writers and poets from around the state to share their work here in Mount Pleasant with a large, receptive audience. In addition to providing a space to hear some of Michigan's best writers, the series also provides opportunities for CMU writing students to read their works-in-progress in public alongside these prominent authors. The Wellspring Literary Series also features music performed by students and faculty members from the CMU School of Music, as well as local Musicians. All readings are free and open to the public and take place at the Art Reach of Mid Michigan, located at 111 E. Broadway in downtown Mt. Pleasant. Readings are generally held on the first or second Monday of every month, except in the case of holidays or scheduling conflicts. Refreshments are served, courtesy of Max and Emily's Eatery. For the latest updates, further details, or inquiries, email Robert Fanning or visit the Wellspring Literary Series website.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 7:00PM.
BOVEE UNIVERSITY CENTER ROTUNDA
The Faculty Reading Series Presents: A Reading by MATTHEW ROBERSON and ROBERT FANNING
Matthew Roberson is the author of four novels—1998.6, Impotent, List, and the recently published campus novel Interim. He also edited the collection Musing the Mosaic: Approaches to Ronald Sukenick. His short fiction has appeared in Fourteen Hills, Fiction International, Clackamas Literary Review, Western Humanities Review, Notre Dame Review, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and others. He lives and teaches in central Michigan.
Robert Fanning is the author of four full-length collections of poetry: Severance, Our Sudden Museum, American Prophet and The Seed Thieves, as well as two chapbooks: Sheet Music and Old Bright Wheel. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, Shenandoah, Gulf Coast, The Atlanta Review, Waxwing, THRUSH, The Cortland Review, The Common, and many other journals. He is the Founder/Facilitator of the Wellspring Literary Series in Mt. Pleasant, MI., and the Founder/Director of PEN/INSULA POETRY, a resource for Michigan poets. For more information, visit: www.robertfanning.wordpress.com.
MONDAY, MARCH 11, 7:00 PM
ART REACH CENTER (111 E. Broadway, Mount Pleasant)
The Wellspring Literary Series Presents: A Reading by HELENA MESA
Helena Mesa is the author of Where Land Is Indistinguishable from Sea (forthcoming from Terrapin Books) and Horse Dance Underwater, and a co-editor for Mentor & Muse: Essays from Poets to Poets. Her poems have appeared in The Adroit Journal, Beloit Poetry Journal, Indiana Review, Pleiades, Prairie Schooner, the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day series, and elsewhere. Mesa earned an MFA from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston. She teaches at Albion College and lives in Ann Arbor.
THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 7:00 PM
Park Library Auditorium
The Meijer Visiting Writers Series Presents: A Reading by Christopher Schaberg and Mark Yakich
Christopher Schaberg is Director of Public Scholarship at Washington University in St. Louis. His most recent books are Adventure: An Argument for Limits (Bloomsbury, 2023), Fly-Fishing(Duke University Press, 2023), and Pedagogy of the Depressed (Bloomsbury, 2022).
Mark Yakich is Distinguished Professor of English at Loyola University New Orleans. His most recent books are Poetry: A Survivor's Guide (Bloomsbury, 2022), Football: An Object Lesson (Bloomsbury, 2022), and Spiritual Exercises (Penguin, 2019).
