Carlson-Stauffer Visiting Writers’ Series

The English and creative writing department is proud to sponsor the Carlson-Stauffer Visiting Writers’ Series, which brings nationally recognized authors to campus. All events are free and open to the public.

Series Background

The series is named for two beloved professors emerita, Kathy Carlson and Emily Stauffer, both of whom retired in spring 2015. Together, their combined service at Franklin College spanned close to 70 years. The series began in 2015 and has allowed the department to host dozens of writers from across the country. Writers hold a publicly open reading. Typically, they also interact with creative writing students at a meal, by visiting creative writing classes to conduct a masterclass in their genre, and/or even offering feedback on students’ writing.

Participating Writers

Visiting writers have been poets, fiction writers, YA authors, writers of non-fiction, and multi-genre writers. Some notable names include:

• Marcus Wicker, 2015
• Maggie Messitt, 2016
• Jamaal May, 2017
• David Tomas Martinez, 2018
• Terrance Hayes, 2019
• Nafissa Thompson-Spires, 2019
• Ross Gay, 2019
• Adrian Matejka, 2020 (and 2023)
• Eugene Gloria, 2021
• Dan Chaon, 2022
• Saundra Mitchell, 2023
• Angela Jackson-Brown, 2023

The series has also welcomed back two alumni from our department, the YA author Brooke Lauren Davis (’15) and the poet Samantha Fain (’20).

Fall 2023

On Nov. 28, 2023, the department is welcoming poet Matthew Minicucci for his second visit in our series. Matthew will be reading from his fourth poetry collection, Dual, which was released last month from Acre Books. The event will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023 in the B.F. Hamilton Auditorium. A book signing will follow the reading.

Matthew Minicucci event poster (PDF)