English Readings and Events

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.

Faculty Reading Series

Join us for readings by CMU English department faculty members each semester.

    Meijer Visiting Writers Series

    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.

      Annual Leaves of Grass marathon reading

      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.

        Wellspring Literary Series

        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.

        Fall 2024 calendar of events

        The Wellspring Literary Series presents a reading by Keith Taylor

        Monday, September 23 at 7 PM at Art Reach of Mid Michigan (111 E. Broadway, Mt. Pleasant)

        An alumnus of CMU’s MA in English program, Keith Taylor is originally from Western Canada, but has lived for the past 50 years in Michigan. He has authored or edited 20 books and chapbooks. Before the very recently published All the Time You Want: Selected Poems 1977 – 2017, and the brand new collection What Can the Matter Be?, his last full length collection, The Bird-while won the Bronze medal for the Foreword/Indies Poetry Book of the Year. His poems, stories, reviews, essays and translations have appeared widely in North America and in Europe. Six years ago he retired from the University of Michigan, where he taught Creative Writing for 20 years. Before that he worked as a bookseller in Ann Arbor for another 20 years. Taylor has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and from the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs. He has been Writer/Artist In Residence at Isle Royale National Park (twice), the Detroit YMCA, The International Writers’ and Translators’ Centre of Rhodes, Greece, the University of Michigan Biological Station, and Greenhills School.

        The 17th annual Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass marathon reading

        Friday, October 4 from 7:42 a.m. - ? in the Fabiano Botanical Garden

        Bring a blanket and come for an hour or two, or all day long, as (beginning at sunrise!) we read the Deathbed Edition of Whitman’s classic, Leaves of Grass in the beautiful Fabiano Botanical Garden on CMU’s campus adjacent to Park Library. All are welcome to come take turns with others reading, or just lay back on the grass and listen and enjoy.

        The Meijer Visiting Writers Series presents a reading by Julie Schumacher

        Thursday, October 10 at 7 PM in the Park Library, Opperman Auditorium

        Julie Schumacher grew up in Wilmington, Delaware and graduated from Oberlin College and Cornell University. Her first published story, “Reunion,” written to fulfill an undergraduate writing assignment (“tell a family tale”) was reprinted in The Best American Short Stories 1983. Subsequent stories and essays were published in The Atlantic, The New York Times, MS, The Chronicle for Higher Education, Prize Stories: The O.Henry Awards, and other venues. Her first novel, The Body Is Water, was published by Soho Press in 1995 and was an ALA Notable Book of the Year and a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Schumacher’s other books include the national best-seller, Dear Committee Members (winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor); The Shakespeare Requirement, Doodling for Academics (a satirical coloring book); and five novels for younger readers. Schumacher lives in St. Paul and is a Regents Professor at the University of Minnesota, where she teaches in the Creative Writing Program and the Department of English. She has won multiple teaching awards and has been recognized as a “Scholar of the College.”

        The Wellspring Literary Series presents a reading by Andrew Collard

        Monday, October 21 at 7 PM at Art Reach of Mid Michigan (111 E. Broadway, Mount Pleasant)

        Set in the metropolis centered on Detroit, MI, Andrew Collard’s first book, Sprawl, won the Hollis Summers poetry prize and was published in March of 2023 by Ohio University Press. Poems from Sprawl have appeared in Ploughshares, AGNI, Best New Poets, and many more journals and magazines. Andrew received a Ph.D. from Western Michigan University and currently teaches as a Visiting Professor at Grand Valley State University. He lives with his son in Grand Rapids.

        The Meijer Visiting Writers Series presents a reading by Nandi Comer

        Wednesday, November 6 at 7 PM in the Park Library, Opperman Auditorium

        Nandi Comer is the Poet Laureate of Michigan. She received a B.A. in English and in Spanish with an emphasis on Latin American Culture from the University of Michigan. She has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center, Callaloo, and a translation fellowship by US Poets in Mexico.  Her poems and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Callaloo, Crab Orchard Review, The Journal of Pan African Studies, Sycamore Review, and Third Coast.  She is the author of American Family: Syndrome (Finishing Line Press) and Tapping Out (Northwestern University Press), which was awarded the 2020 Society of Midland Authors Award and the 2020 Julie Suk Award. In 2016 she completed an M.A. in African American Literature from the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies and an M.F.A. in Poetry from the English Department at Indiana University. She is a 2019 Kresge Literary Arts Fellow.

        A reading by Jeffrey Bean and Darrin Doyle

        Wednesday, November 20 at 7 PM in the Bovee U.C. Rotunda

        Jeffrey Bean is the author of three chapbooks and three full-length poetry collections. His most recent chapbook, Ella’s Plan, was chosen by Naomi Shihab Nye as the winner of the 2022 Poet’s Corner/Maine Media Chapbook Contest, and his most recent full-length collection, Everywhere, Everywhere, was chosen by Robert Morgan for the 2024 Vern Rutsala Prize and published by Cloudbank Books. Recent poems appear or are forthcoming in The Southern Review, Colorado Review, Poets.org, Sugar House Review, Poet Lore, and The Laurel Review, among other journals. For more, visit www.jeffreybeanpoet.com.

        Darrin Doyle is the author of seven books of fiction, most recently the novella Let Gravity Seize the Dead (Regal House Publishing). His other works include the novel The Beast in Aisle 34 and the story collection, The Dark Will End the Dark (Tortoise Books). His fiction has appeared in Hobart, Passages North, Summerset Review, Word Riot, Puerto del Sol, Alaska Quarterly Review, and other journals. He lives in Mount Pleasant, Michigan and watches too many horror movies. For more, visit www.darrindoyle.com.