Susan Glaspell Writers & Critics Series

‌2022-2023 Schedule

This series is sponsored by the Drake English Department and made possible by a grant from the Drake University Center for the Humanities. All events are free and open to the public. If you have any questions regarding Writers & Critics Events, please contact Leah Huizar at leah.huizar@drake.edu or Carol Spaulding-Kruse at carol.spaulding@drake.edu.

Fall 2022

Drake Writers Night                                                   
Cohosted by Periphery and Writers and Critics
Thursday, October 27, 2022
Location: Medbury Honors Lounge
Time: 7:0pm to 9:00pm

Drake Writers Night “Halloween edition” is back. Bring your brief stories, flash nonfiction, poems, songs, and hybrid forms. Spooky themes encouraged, so bring your newest tale of terror, ghostly encounters, witchy meditations. Or bring your finest work or work-in-progress. Bring any creative work, on theme or not. All are welcome. Hot chocolate and cookies provided.

Amy Reed, Young Adult Fiction / Writer 
Thursday, November 17^th

Location: Cowles Library Reading Room

Time: 5:15pm – 6:15pm

Amy Reed is the author of many critically acclaimed contemporary young adult novels, including the award-winning novels, Beautiful (2009), Clean (2011), Crazy (2012), Over You (2013), and Damaged (2014). She has also published the two-book series Invincible (2015) and Unforgivable (2016), the novel The Nowhere Girls (2017), and the anthology Our Stories, Our Voices: 21 YA Authors Get Real About Injustice, Empowerment, and Growing Up Female in America (2018). Reed’s feminist approach to YA fiction speak to contemporary issues important to young people including the climate crisis, sexual violence, drug addiction, class commentary, and mental illness. Her most recent book is the feminist, gender-swapped Great Gatsby adaptation and psychological thriller, Tell Me My Name (2021).

 Spring 2023

Photo Credit: Marlon Co. 

Carolyn Finney, Ph.D, Performer/Activist/Storyteller

April 6, 2023

Medbury Honors Lounge

1:00pm Lunch with students

Turner Jazz Center

5-8 PM “Know Your Roots” Community Storytelling Workshop and Keynote

Carolyn Finney is a storyteller, author, performance artist and cultural geographer who is deeply interested in issues related to identity, difference, creativity, and resilience.The aim of her work is to develop greater cultural competency within environmental organizations and institutions, challenge media outlets on their representation of difference, and increase awareness of how privilege shapes who gets to speak to environmental issues and determine policy and action. Carolyn has been a Fulbright Scholar, a Canon National Parks Science Scholar and received a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in Environmental Studies. She has also worked with the media in many capacities and served an eight-year term on the U.S. National Parks Advisory Board during which she assisted the National Park Service in engaging in relations of reciprocity with diverse communities. Finney is the author of Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors (2014) and many articles, performance pieces. She is currently artist-in-residence and the Environmental Studies Professor of Practice in the Franklin Environmental Center at Middlebury College. 

In collaboration with the Drake Community Press and Iowa Environmental Council, Finney will lead an indoor/outdoor community workshop in storytelling around Iowans’ perspective on environmental justice and talk with human-service nonprofits in our community about building policy and action on climate justice for the people they serve. In addition, Finney will have a lunch with students interested in storytelling and the concept of genealogical/geographical roots.

Drake Writers Night, Spring edition
Thursday, April 20, 2023
Location: Medbury Honors Lounge
Time: 7:00pm to 9:00pm 

Join our open mic format for 3-5 minute readings of your brief stories, flash nonfiction, poems, excerpts from longer work, songs, and hybrid forms. Polished work or work-in-progress with optional audience feedback. Bring your finest work or work-in-progress. All are welcome. Refreshments provided.