Visiting Writers Series: Jessica Alexander and Ray Levy Feb. 18

Join us for the first Visiting Writers Series event of spring at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18, in the Niemann Media Theater. Jessica Alexander and Ray Levy will read their fiction, which emerges from the crossroads of fiction, memoir, critical theory, Queer theory, and more.

About Ray Levy

Ray Levy is the author of “School” (University of Alabama Press/FC2), “Negative Space” (Spiral Editions), “A Book So Red” (Caketrain), and “Necessary Objects” (Tree Light Books). His short fictions appear or are forthcoming in ANMLY, Black Warrior Review, DIAGRAM, Fence, Tarpaulin Sky, Territory, SPORAZINE, Western Humanities Review, and others. The recipient of an NEA Fellowship in Prose, Mr. Levy is currently assistant professor of English at Illinois State University and a founding editor at Dreginald. He lives in Bloomington, Ill.

About Jessica Alexander

Jessica Alexander’s novella, “None of This Is an Invitation” (co-written with Katie Jean Shinkle) was published by Astrophil Press in summer 2023. Her story collection, “Dear Enemy,” was the winning manuscript in the 2016 Subito Prose Contest, as judged by Selah Saterstrom. Her collaborative project (co-written with Vi Khi Nao) “That Woman Could Be You” came out with BlazeVox in April 2022. Her fiction has been published in journals such as Fence, Black Warrior Review, PANK, Denver Quarterly, The Collagist, and DIAGRAM. She lives in Louisiana, where she teaches creative writing at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

A full list of the spring visiting writers and bio notes for each are below. 

Tuesday, March 4 — Jared Stanley

Jared Stanley is a poet and writer who often collaborates with artists. He is the author of four collections of poetry: “So Tough,” “EARS,” “The Weeds,” and “Book Made of Forest,” as well as many chapbooks and pamphlets, most recently “The Blurry Hole” (with Sameer Farooq, Artspeak, 2022) and “SHALL” (Black Rock Press, 2019). His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Bennington Review, Harvard Review, VOLT, Folder Magazine, and many others. His awards include The Saturnalia Prize, Harvard’s Woodberry Poetry Room Creative Fellowship (with Sameer Farooq), and a Silver Pen Award from the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame, as well as fellowships from the Nevada Arts Council and the Center for Art + Environment. Recent collaborative art exhibitions have shown at the Atheneum Art & Music Library (La Jolla), in collaboration with Matthew Hebert, and at the Lilley Museum (Reno), in collaboration with Sameer Farooq. He teaches in the MFA Program in creative writing at the University of Nevada, Reno and lives in Reno, Nevada with an historian and their daughter.

Tuesday, April 29 — Donald Revell

Donald Revell is the author of 14 collections of poetry, six volumes of translations from the French, and three volumes of critical writings, including “Essay: A Critical Memoir.” A former fellow of the Ingram Merrill and Guggenheim Foundations, he is the winner of the PEN USA Translation Award and two-time winner of the PEN USA Award for Poetry, and he has twice been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.

We hope to see you at the readings!

Sponsoring Department, Office, or Organization:

English Department

For more information, contact:

Rick Meier: rmeier@shushijia.net