Writers Read Author Series 2022-23
Writers Read, sponsored by the Language and Literature Program, is a special event featuring authors who read from and comment on their work. Dates, times, costs and locations are indicated below (map of EMU campus).
Saturday, Oct. 8
Homecoming and Family Weekend Event
MARSHALL V. KING, author of Disarmed, The Radical Life and Legacy of Michael "MJ" Sharp
7 p.m. in Common Grounds (Now on 2nd floor of University Commons)
MARSHALL V. KING is a writer and journalist based in Goshen, Indiana. For more than twenty years he worked at the Elkhart Truth as a reporter and eventually managing editor. He has written for a number of other publications and has often focused on food, writing a popular column called Dining A La King for more than 20 years. He is head storyteller for the Community Foundation of Elkhart County and an adjunct professor of communication at Goshen College. He is the author of Disarmed, The Radical Life and Legacy of Michael “MJ” Sharp. He is a 1992 graduate of Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He and his spouse are members of Assembly Mennonite Church in Goshen.
Thursday, Nov. 10
MATTHEW E. HENRY, author of the Colored page
7 p.m. in Common Grounds (Now on 2nd floor of University Commons)
MATTHEW E. HENRY (MEH) is the author of the Colored page (Sundress Publications, 2022), Teaching While Black (Main Street Rag, 2020), Dust & Ashes (Californios Press, 2020), and has a forthcoming collection of theological sonnets from New York Quarterly Books. He is the editor-in-chief of The Weight Journal—publishing emerging high school voices—with his own poetry and prose appearing or forthcoming in Barren Magazine, Fare Forward, The Florida Review, Massachusetts Review, New York Quarterly, Ninth Letter, Ploughshares, Poetry East, Relief Journal, Saint Katherine Review, Shenandoah, Solstice, Spiritus, The Windhover, and Zone 3 among others. MEH’s an educator who received his MFA (Seattle Pacific) yet continued to spend money he didn’t have completing an MA in theology (Andover Newton Theological) and a PhD in education (Lesley University). You can find him at www.MEHPoeting.com writing about education, race, religion, and burning oppressive systems to the ground.
Tuesday, March 14
SOFIA SAMATAR, author of The White Mosque
7 p.m., Main Stage theater
SOFIA SAMATAR is the author of five books, most recently the memoir The White Mosque, which tells the story of her trip to Uzbekistan to research a group of Mennonites who followed a charismatic preacher to Central Asia in the nineteenth century. Her works include the award-winning epic fantasy A Stranger in Olondria and Monster Portraits, an exploration of monsters in collaboration with her brother, the artist Del Samatar. The recipient of the World Fantasy Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, Sofia lives in Harrisonburg and teaches African literature, Arabic literature, and speculative fiction at James Madison University. She will be reading from her new book, The White Mosque. Details about the book are included here.
Special Lecture: Thursday, March 23
1 p.m., Martin Chapel
The Rev. Claude Atcho will speak about Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. Atcho is the author of Reading Black Books: How African American literature can make our faith more whole and just
Special Lecture: Thursday, March 30
SURESH CANAGARAJAH, linguist: "Crip Writing: Meaning Making in Disability"
7 p.m., Martin Chapel
“To crip is to disrupt the stable, transform the familiar, subvert the order of things, unsettle entrenched beliefs, and to make anew” (Henner & Robinson, 2021, p.3). Writing under disabled conditions uncovers biased definitions of norms, practices, and proficiencies that make the communication of some people appear as deficient. On the other hand, such writing brings out hidden resources and strengths that are always part of communication but rarely acknowledged. Q & A and refreshments to follow the lecture.
SURESH CANAGARAJAH recently published Language Incompetence: Learning to Communicate Through Cancer, Disability, and Anomalous Embodiment. He is the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English, Applied Linguistics, and Asian Studies at Pennsylvania State University. He teaches World Englishes, Multilingual Writing, Decolonial Studies, and Disability Rhetoric. Suresh comes from the Tamil-speaking northern region of Sri Lanka. He was formerly the editor of the TESOL Quarterly and President of the American Association of Applied Linguistics. Suresh has served as a voluntary staff worker for the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) in Sri Lanka and the US. He currently serves in the Pennsylvania State Law Enforcement Citizen Advisory Commission, established by the governor of Pennsylvania to improve policing practices in the state. He also coordinates the “Consortium for Democratizing Academic Publishing and Knowledge” to mentor minority scholars worldwide into publishing.
