David Haynes, October 2–6, 2023
Wednesday, Oct. 4, at 4 p.m.: Fiction Reading
Adorjan Hall, Room 142, 3800 Lindell Blvd.
Thursday, Oct. 5, at 4 p.m.: Craft Discussion
Adorjan Hall, Room 142, 3800 Lindell Blvd.
David Haynes is the author of seven novels for adults and five books for younger readers. His seventh and most recent novel is "A Star in the Face of the Sky" (New Rivers Press, 2013). In 2023, Penguin Classics published the 30th-anniversary edition of his first novel, "Right by My Side." His next book, "Martha’s Daughter: A Novella and Stories," is forthcoming. He is also the author of a series for children called “The West Seventh Wildcats,” centering on the adventures and travails of a multiethnic middle-school clique. Haynes spent 15 years as a K-12 teacher in urban schools, mostly teaching middle grades in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is an emeritus professor of English at Southern Methodist University, where he directed the creative writing program for 10 years. Since 1996 he has taught regularly in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, among other places. He is currently on the Board of Directors of Kimbilio, a community of writers and scholars committed to developing, empowering and sustaining fiction writers from the African diaspora and their stories.
For more information, contact Devin Johnston in the Department of English.
Sherwin Bitsui, February 12–16, 2024
Wednesday, Feb. 14 at 4 p.m.: Poetry Reading
Adorjan Hall, Room 142, 3800 Lindell Blvd.
Thursday, Feb. 15 at 4 p.m.: Craft Discussion
Adorjan Hall, Room 142, 3800 Lindell Blvd.
Sherwin Bitsui is the author of three collections of poetry, "Dissolve" (Copper Canyon, 2018), "Flood Song" (Copper Canyon, 2009), and "Shapeshift" (University of Arizona Press, 2003). Originally from White Cone, Arizona, on the Navajo Reservation, he is Diné of the Todích’ii’nii (Bitter Water Clan), born for the Tlizílaaní (Many Goats Clan) and holds an A.F.A. from the Institute of American Indian Arts Creative Writing Program and a B.A. from the University of Arizona in Tucson. His recent honors include a 2011 Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship and a 2011 Native Arts & Culture Foundation Arts Fellowship. He is also the recipient of the 2010 PEN Open Book Award, an American Book Award, and a Whiting Writers Award.
For more information, contact Devin Johnston in the Department of English.
About the Residence Program
The Georgia K. Johnston Writer-in-Residence program is made possible by a generous bequest from a former faculty member in the SLU English Department. Professor Georgia Johnston died in 2017 after a long illness. She was a specialist in modernist literature and LGBTQ culture and theory, as well as an accomplished poet.