URS

The University of Scranton's Reading Series

Begun in 1983 by Professor John Meredith Hill, the University Reading Series brings distinguished writers of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and drama to campus each year to give free public readings of their work to the greater Scranton community and to meet with, instruct, and inspire students and faculty in the Department of English and Theatre. 

Guest readers have included: Anne Pierson Wiese (Floating City Poems), Catie Rosemurgy (The Stranger Maual), David Wyatt (The Year America Turned), Ada Limón (Bright Dead Things, Sharks in the Rivers, This Big Fake World: A Story in Verse, Lucky Wreck), Allison Joseph (Voices: Poems, My Father's Kite, Worldly Pleasures, Imitation of Life, Soul Train), Matthew Hobson (The Audubon Guide to North American Suicides), Brianna Noll (The Price of Scarlet), and Martha Serpas (The Diener, The Dirty Side of the Storm).

For more information, please email Joe Kraus or Billie Tadros, Department of English & Theatre.

porto-pic.jpg

2024-2025

The University Reading Series welcomes Matthew Porto to read from his new book of poems called Moon Grammar. 

Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Place: Fireplace Room, The DeNaples Center, 405
Free and open to the public

Matthew Porto is an Italian-American poet from Long Island, NY, and a University of Scranton alumnus (class of 2012). He also holds an MFA in poetry from Boston University and a Ph.D. in English from Texas Tech University. His first collection, Moon Grammar, appeared with Slant Books in 2024. He lives in Boston, MA, where he is a professor of English at Berklee College of Music.

                event flyer

2023-24    

The English & Theatre dept. partnered with the Wienberg Memorial Library to host a reading featuring of one of our Alumns. 

 event-poster

 

E Kerr is a graduate of English & Occupational Therapy at The University of Scranton. Their Poetry focuses on how the literary arts can be used to explore and represent identity. They are a recipient of the inaugural 2022 Stennker/Dennis LGBT& Award, and their work has been featured in various publications, including Rappahannock Review Esprit. Kerr's debut collection, trans [re]incarnation, was released in April 2023, with Mason Jar Press. Kerr , a transmasculine poet, lives and writes in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

         e kerr pic 2               e kerr event poster   

                                                 event pic 1

2022-23

 S.L. Wisenberg is the author of a fiction collection, The Sweetheart Is In; the essay collection Holocaust Girls: History, Memory & Other Obsessions; and a chronicle, The Adventures of Cancer Bitch. She has received a Pushcart Prize, and awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Illinois Arts council, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provicetown. She lives in Chicago, whe she edits Another Chicago Magazine.

 

2021-2022

 

 Kayleb Rae Candrilli is the recipient of a Whiting Award, PEW fellowship, and of a fellowship from the National Endownment of the Arts. They are the author of Water I Won't Touch, All the Gay Saints, and What Runs Over.

 

2020-2021

Christine Taylor

Christine Taylor resides in her hometown Plainfield, New Jersey. She is the EIC of Kissing Dynamite: A Journal of Poetry and the author of The Queen City (Broken Sleep Books, 2019) Petal (Bone & Ink Press, 2020), CLAW: A Collection of Haibun (Ghost City Press, 2020), and Buffer Aone: Snapshots from an Abourtion Clinic Escort (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, 2020). She spends most days covered in cat hair and staring at Christmas lights. Visit her at www.christinetayloronline.com

 

 

 Elizabeth Deanna Morris Lakes

Elizabeth Deanna Morris Lakes was born in Harrisburg, PA and has a B.A. in Creative Writing from Susquehanna University and an M.F.A. from George Mason University. Her book, Ashley Sugarnotch & the Wolf, is out  from Mason Jar Press. She has appeared in Always Crashing, The Rumpus, Cartridge Lit., Crab Fat Magazine, and SmokeLong Quarterly. She is the blog editor of The Rupture. She is one of two buds on The Smug Buds podcast.

 

2019-2020

Meg Day

 meg day 

Meg Day received their Ph.D. from the University of Utah. They are the author of Last Psalm at Sea Level (Barrow Street Press, 2014) and coeditor of Laura Hershey: On the Lie and Work of an American Master (Pleiades Press, 2019). They teach at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Day won the Publishing Triangle's Audre Lorde Award in Poetry and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Poetry.

 

Sadie Hoagland

sadie hoagland 

Sadie Hoagland received her Ph.D. from the University of Utah. She is the author American Grief in Four Stages (West Virginia University Press, 2019). She teaches at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

 

Amye Archer

amye archer

Amye Archer received her M.F.A. from Wilkes University. She is the author of Fat Girl, Skinny (Big Table Publishing, 2016) and coeditor of If I Don't Make It, I Love You: Survivors in the Aftermath of School Shootings (Skyhorse Publishing, 2019). She is the Writing Center Coordinator and teaches at The University of Scranton.

 Meg Day, Sadie Hoagland and our own Amye Archer will give a panel reading and discussion on writing about embodiment/grief/trauma on February 6, 2020 at 6 p.m. 

day hoagland archer poster

Cristina Rivera Garza

Distinguished Professor in Hispanic Studies & Director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston. One of the foremost writers in the Spanish language, and one of the most interesting experimental writers in America, Rivera Garza has published 6 novels, three collections of stories, five collections of poetry, and three non-fiction books. Her books have been translated into multiple languages, including English, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Korean. Garza is set to give a reading of her work at 7:30pm in DeNaples 405.

 cristina rivera garza pic

  

2018-2019

Christine Friedlander

Writer, educator, and sexual assault survivor advocate read from her latest poetry works on Thursday, November 15, 2018 in the Edward Leahy Hall, Kane Forum, Room 235.  Ms. Friedlander read from her most recent book of poetry titled, Avant Gauze.  She is also the author of a Fiction Chapbook, Repeat After Me (winner of the RopeWalk Press Editor's Prize, 2017).  The event was well attended by students, faculty and staff.  A special thank you to the Jane Kopas Women's Center for their support.

christine_friedlander_flyer
friedlander_pic_2 friedlander_pic_1
friedlander_pic_3

 

Nov. 27, 2018

Angie-Cruz

Angie Cruz

Author and Creative Writing Professor at the University of Pittsburgh will be reading from her latest works on October 18, 2018 in the DeNaples Center, room 405, from 7:00 - 8:00pm, all are welcome.  She is an American novelist and the author of Let It Rain Coffee and Soledad and is currently working on a screenplay for one of them.  Thanks to the support of the Office of Equity and Diversity, the Department of Latin-American & Women Studies, and the Humanities Initiative for helping us make this a possiblity.

cruz pic 3

  cruz pic 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 19, 2018

martha serpas

 Martha Serpas

Professor of English at the University of Houston, Creative Writing, poet and author of The Diener, The Dirty Side of the Storm and Cote Blanche will be reading from her latest works on Wednesday, February 21, 2018 in Leahy Hall, Kane Forum, room 235 from 5:00 - 6:30pm, all are welcome.  This is made possible with support from the Jesuit Center, the Ellacuria Initiative and the Department of Theology.

Brianna Noll

Alumna Poet Brianna Noll's New Book Turning Heads

We're proud to boast about alum Brianna Noll (English, 2004) whose new book of poetry, The Price of Scarlet, (University of Kentucky Press) is winning attention and praise.

Brianna Noll                                                             

The Chicago Review of Books has recently named it a top book to read this January, and the magazine offers a glowing review, including the following:

Her vivid poems obscure the line between what is literal and what is figurative. The result is alchemic and ethereal — each verse intricately layered with sharp observation as well as emotional and intellectual exploration and questioning.

To read the full review, go here:  We aren't the only ones to brag about Brianna Noll's recent collection of poetry.  Read an interview with her here:

February 14, 2017
Matthew Hobson pic.jpg
Matthew Hobson
Allison Joseph pic.jpg
Allison Joseph
Daniel Draft.jpg
Daniel Alarcon
Scroll to Top