Medaille College's Write Thing Reading Series just might be one of the most eclectic visiting artist series at any educational institution in Buffalo. Each semester, Medaille invites from 3 to 6 published poets and fiction writers to campus for readings and/or class visits. Students at Medaille have the unique chance to meet up close and personal with Pulitzer Prize winners, National Book Award finalists, Guggenheim Fellowship recipients, and some of the most renowned international writers of today - as well as up-and-coming younger writers.

All readings are 7 p.m. Thursdays in the Academic Commons, Fourth Floor, Main Building. All events are free and open to the public. Refreshments are available.

Watch videos of Aimee Parkison and Anouar Majid from the 2007-08 Write Thing Reading Series, as well as Alissa Nutting and Eric Miles Williamson from the 2010-2011 series.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Peter Conners, poet, fiction writer, director of BOA Editions, author of Growing Up Dead (a memoir of touring with the Grateful Dead)

Peter Conners is author of the memoir, Growing Up Dead: The Hallucinated Confessions of a Teenage Deadhead (Da Capo Press, 2009). His new book, White Hand Society: The Psychedelic Partnership of Timothy Leary & Allen Ginsberg, was published by City Lights in November 2010. He is currently at work on a documentary film and an oral history book about jam and festival bands titled JAMerica. JAMerica will be published by Da Capo Press in fall 2013.  His other books include the novella Emily Ate the Wind (Marick Press), and three books published by Buffalo area publishers, the prose poetry collections Of Whiskey and Winter (White Pine Press), The Crows Were Laughing in their Trees (White Pine Press), and PP/FF: An Anthology (Starcherone Books). He lives in Rochester, New York where he works as Publisher of the not-for-profit literary press BOA Editions.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Laurie Viera Rigler, novelist, web series writer, and author of Rude Awakenings of Jane Austen Addict.

Laurie Viera Rigler's novels Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict and Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict (both published by Plume in North America and by Bloomsbury in the UK) could have been considered semi-autobiographical had they not involved time travel and body switching. Her short story, "Intolerable Stupidity," in which Mr. Darcy brings charges against all the writers of Pride and Prejudice sequels, spin-offs and retellings, appears in the anthology Jane Austen Made Me Do It (Ballantine). In addition to working on her third and fourth novels, Laurie is the creator of the Babelgum original web series Sex and the Austen Girl, which is inspired by her Austen Addict novels. All 23 episodes can be found on Laurie's online home, janeaustenaddict.com.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Elise Blackwell, novel and short story writer whose books have been named to several "best of the year" lists.

Elise Blackwell is the author of four novels: Hunger, The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish, Grub, and An Unfinished Score. Her books have been translated into several languages, and her short prose has been published in The Atlantic, Witness, Seed, Chronicle of Higher Education, Global City Review, and elsewhere. Originally from southern Louisiana, she currently directs the MFA program at the University of South Carolina.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Ntare Ali Gault, Buffalo slam poet, memoirist, and playwright.

Ntare Ali Gault, founder and organizer of the Njozi Poets, is a spoken-word artist, actor, playwright and author. His book, The Sun Will Rise: A Memoir of an Urban Family was published in 2009. He has appeared in Ujima Theatre Company's productions of The Colored Museum, The Visit, and The Green Pastures. He's also written, directed and produced several plays and musicals. Gault has won poetry slams throughout North America and has been a featured performer at many venues and colleges, including the 2010 When Brothers Speak spoken word concert. Ntare placed 1st in the Tri-City Poetry Slam in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2004. He was also a 2006 Buffalo representative for the National Poetry Slam. Gault has conducted workshops for Young Audiences of WNY, the Alternative Literacy Program (ALPS), and Musicians United for Superior Education (MUSE) and Just Buffalo Literacy Center. Some of his former students from these programs have gone on to become professional performers. He is a prolific writer, and is in the process of producing his next play, Ain't She Brave.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Sean Thomas Dougherty, Erie PA poet and slam poet.

Sean Thomas Dougherty is an "underground/sound." A border crosser by birth, Dougherty was raised in a politically radical, interracial family. He is the author or editor of FOURTEEN books across genre including the forthcoming All I Ask for Is Longing: Poems 1994- 2014 (2014 BOA Editions), Scything Grace (2013 Etruscan Press), Sasha Sings the Laundry on the Line (2010 BOA Editions), which was a finalist for Binghamton University Milton Kessler's literary prize for the best book by a poet over 40, and Broken Hallelujahs (2007 BOA Editions). He is the recipient of two Pennsylvania Council for the Arts Fellowships in Poetry and a Fulbright Lectureship to the Balkans. Known for his electrifying performances he has performed at hundreds of venues, universities and festivals across North America and Europe including the Lollapalooza Music Festival, the Detroit Art Festival, the Rochester Symphony Orchestra, the Erie Jazz Festival, the London (UK) Poetry Cafe and the BardFest Series in Budapest Hungary, and across Albania and Macedonia where he appeared on national television, sponsored by the US State Department. He has read for PBS radio in Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Cleveland. He has worked as a lecturer, in factories, warehouses, as a security guard, in a bakery, a sawmill, and as a teacher of at-risk youth. He currently works at a pool hall, gives readings, and teaches creative writing part-time at Cleveland State University.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Rachel B. Glaser, short story writer, author of the debut collection Pee on Water.

Rachel B. Glaser is the author of the innovative short story collection "Pee On Water" (Publishing Genius, Press 2010) and a forthcoming book of poetry "MOODS" (Factory Hollow Press, 2013).  "Pee On Water" was on the Believer's Top Ten Reader's Survey List (2010).  Glaser's stories have been published in McSweeney's, New York Tyrant, American Short Fiction, and others.  After receiving her undergraduate degree in Painting at the Rhode Island School of Design, she studied fiction at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst's MFA Program.  She now lives in Northampton, MA spending her time teaching writing at Flying Object, working on a novel, and painting basketball stars.