Writers Read Author Series 2026-27
Writers Read, sponsored by EMU's English program, features literary artists and scholars who read from and discuss their work. All events are free and open to the public. Dates, times, and locations (map of EMU campus) appear below.
Patricia Grace King, author of THOSE WHO VANISH
Thursday, October 8, 2026, at 7:00 p.m. in Martin Chapel
Award-winning fiction writer and EMU alumna Patricia Grace King (1989) will read selections
from her new book, THOSE WHO VANISH, and discuss her writing process with her former
student Esther Harder (2003) at a university homecoming kick-off event in Martin Chapel
at 7 pm on October 8, 2026. Q and A and book-signing will follow.
Winner of the 2026 Drue Heinz Literature Prize, THOSE WHO VANISH follows the stories
of Guatemalan citizens and North American expats set on a collision course by war.
Set in a world of daily disappearances, the collection addresses a vital question:
When all certainties are snatched away, what remains of lives, of memory, of faith?
King, a North Carolina native who now lives in Durham, England, draws from her experience
of having lived in Guatemala. Harder, who documented peace efforts in Uganda and Rwanda
for a decade after graduating from EMU, now serves as a "book coach who helps writers
with battered passports transform their far-flung lives into cohesive narratives."
EMU has had the honor of hosting Writer's Read since 2006. To see a list of the other guests, please use the button below.
