A novelist and essayist, Francine Prose has published 12 novels including Blue Angel, a finalist for the 2000 National Book Award, and most recently, Goldengrove. Prose is the 2008-09 Lillian Vernon Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at NYU.

Lisa Jarnot is the author of several volumes of poetry, including Black Dog Songs and Night Scenes. Her forthcoming book is a biography of the poet Robert Duncan.

The Paris Review Salon features acclaimed fiction writers Colum McCann and Padgett Powell in a reading hosted by editor Chris Cox.

Co-sponsored by The Paris Review

Judith Baumel is the author of Now and The Weight of Numbers, which won the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets.

Susan Orlean has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1992, and is the author of the national bestseller, The Orchid Thief.

Judy Budnitz is the author many works of fiction, including If I Told You Once, which won the Edward Lewis Wallant Award and was short-listed for the Orange Prize.

In conversation with Darin Strauss

Celebrating the Winter/Spring 2009 issue of Washington Square, a literary journal edited by graduate students of the NYU Creative Writing Program. Featuring readings by journal contributors John Yau (poetry), Rudolph Delson (fiction) and Eduardo Jimenez-Mayo (translation).

Laurie Sheck present excerpts from A Monster’s Notes (Knopf, May 2009), a hybrid work that re-imagines the unnamed monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Sheck is also the author of five books of poems, most recently Captivity.

Susan Choi’s second novel, American Woman, was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize. Her third novel, A Person of Interest, will be published in paperback in January 2009.

Andrew Sean Greer is the bestselling author of The Story of a Marriage and The Confessions of Max Tivoli, which was named a best book of 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune.

Introduction by Abigail Ulman

A 1997 graduate of the NYU Creative Program, Hannah Tinti is the author of Animal Crackers and The Good Thief, a finalist for the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize.

In conversation with Darin Strauss

The Emerging Writers Series showcases graduate students of the NYU Creative Writing Program. Readings feature established writers as special guests.

Gerald Stern is the author of 15 books of poetry, including This Time: New and Selected Poems, winner of the 1998 National Book Award. His most recent book is Save the Last Dance.

Kwame Dawes is the author of 13 books of poetry, as well as Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius. His recent novel, She’s Gone, received the 2008 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Best First Novel.

Michael Thomas is the author of Man Gone Down, which was a NY Times Top Ten Best Book of 2007, and has been longlisted for the 2009 IMPAC Dublin Literary award. His forthcoming memoir is called The Broken King, which Grove/Atlantic will publish this year.

Conversation moderated by NYU alumnus Maaza Mengiste

An acclaimed Irish poet, Eamon Grennan has published many books including Still Life with Waterfall, The Quick of It, and most recently Matter of Fact.

In conversation with Alice Quinn

Co-sponsored by the Poetry Society of America

This event honors Agha Shahid Ali, esteemed NYU professor and poet. His posthumous poetry collection, The Veiled Suite, will be published in February 2009 by W.W. Norton. Readings will be given by Nicholas Christopher, Michael Collier, Daniel Hall, Marie Ponsot, Grace Schulman, Tom Sleigh, Jean Valentine, and Chuck Wachtel.

Co-sponsored by W.W. Norton

Major Jackson is the author of Hoops, a finalist for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature-Poetry, and Leaving Saturn, winner of the 2000 Cave Canem Poetry Prize and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Donald Axinn is the author of eleven books of poetry and two novels. His most recent collection is Travel in my Borrowed Lives: New and Selected Poems.

Fiona Maazel is the author of Last Last Chance (FSG, 2008) and a former managing editor of The Paris Review. She is a 2005 Lannan Foundation Fellowship recipient.

A beloved and admired poet, critic and teacher, Reginald Shepherd (1963-2008) inspired many with his passionate commitment to poetry, an art he viewed as inextricably connected to history, politics and everyday life. With readings by Timothy Donnelly, Marilyn Hacker, Timothy Liu, Kevin Prufer, Evie Shockley, Susan Stewart and Yerra Sugarman

Co-sponsored by Cave Canem and Poets House

The Emerging Writers Series showcases graduate students of the NYU Creative Writing Program. Readings feature established writers as special guests.

Chang Rae Lee is the author of Native Speaker, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award, the American Book Award and the ALA Book of the Year Award. His newest novel is Aloft.

The Emerging Writers Series showcases graduate students of the NYU Creative Writing Program. Readings feature established writers as special guests.

Amy Hempel is the acclaimed author of four short story collections: Reasons to Live, At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom, Tumble Home, and The Dog of the Marriage. The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel (2006) gathers all the stories from the four earlier books. Note: This podcast is a recording of an earlier reading, featuring Darin Strauss in conversation with Amy Hempel in spring 2008.

Christian Hawkey is the author of Citizen Of; Hour, Hour; and The Book of Funnels, winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. He received a Creative Capital Innovative Literature Award in 2006.

In conversation with Robert N. Casper

Co-sponsored by the Poetry Society of America

Alumni writers from the NYU Creative Writing Program read from their recent publications.

This Henry James scholars' panel is chaired by Susan M. Griffin (University of Louisville; Editor, Henry James Review), with Rita Charon, (Columbia University); Eric Haralson (SUNY Stony Brook); and Lee Clark Mitchell, (Princeton University). This event is part of “The Big Read,” an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Co-sponsored by the Mercantile Library

Sharon Olds is the author of nine books of poetry including The Dead & the Living, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, Strike Sparks: Selected Poems, and The Father, which was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her most recent book is One Secret Thing.

Introduction by Deborah Landau

Joshua Beckman, Noelle Kocot and Chelsey Minnis read from their newest collections. Introduction by Matthew Rohrer.

See photos from the reading (copyright by Star Black):

A celebration of the newest issue of West 10th, NYU Creative Writing Program's undergraduate literary journal. Featuring readings by students and the guest contributor, poet Eileen Myles. Myles' latest book is Sorry Tree. In 2007 she received the Andy Warhol / Creative Capital art writing fellowship.

Ruth Padel, the great-great granddaughter of Charles Darwin, reads from Darwin: A Life in Poems, described by The Economist as "a sequence of snapshots, often small, spasmodic, delicately imagistic. Like a photograph album with audio commentary, they seem to distill Darwin to his essence." A moderated discussion with Alice Quinn will follow.

Co-sponsored by the Poetry Society of America

(For NYU Creative Writing graduate students only.) A one hour seminar by Richard Abate, a literary agent at Endeavor Talent Agency. A graduate of New York University, Abate represents a strong core stable of literary fiction, narrative nonfiction, and young adult authors including Pen Faulkner winner Kate Christensen, Dale Peck, Sana Krasikov, Chuck Hogan, Calvin Baker, Will North and Tara Bray Smith.

Jorie Graham is the author of numerous collections of poetry including The Dream of the Unified Field: Selected Poems 1974-1994, which won the Pulitzer Prize. Her most recent collection is Sea Change. View photos from the event (copyright by Star Black):

The Emerging Writers series showcases graduate students of the NYU Creative Writing Program, and feature established writers as special guests. Scott Snyder is the author of his acclaimed debut novel, Voodoo Heart, and teaches and lives in New York City.

Featuring Nathalie Handal and Tina Chang, editors of Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond.

Honoring the Golden Writers and Yusef Komunyakaa, winner of the 2009 Jean Kennedy Smith NYU Creative Writing Award of Distinction. The Goldwater Hospital Writers participate in an ongoing writing workshop led by fellows from the graduate Creative Writing Program. Voluntary donation requested.

The day before the inauguration, Rachel Zucker and Arielle Greenberg sent out a call to poets they admired to write poems that responded, however loosely, to the presidency, the nation, the government or the current political climate. More than 100 American poets responded immediately. The first 100 poets were each assigned one of President Obama’s first 100 days in office, and their poems were posted daily on a blog (http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com). Held on the 95th day, this event features over 20 poets reading their blog poems: Mark Bibbins, Cornelius Eady Thomas Sayers Ellis, Patricia Carlin, John O’Connor, Leah Souffrant, Matt Rohrer, Patricia Spears Jones, Monica de la Torre, Joy Katz, Rachel Zucker, Craig Teicher, Amy Lemmon, Jeanne Beaumont, Brenda Shaughnessy, Lindsey Wallace, Robin Beth Schaer, Michele Battiste, Cate Marvin, Betsy Fagin, Catherine Barnett, Jason Schneiderman, Katherine Varnes, and Elizabeth Scanlon.

This reading celebrates the inaugural year of the Veteran's Workshop outreach program, with readings given by program participants. Each week, an NYU Creative Writing Fellow leads a weekly creative writing workshop with a group of recent veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This reading also features a guest poet, Bruce Weigl, the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, several translations, and the best-selling memoir The Circle of Hanh. With special thanks to Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, whose support has made this program possible.

Zadie Smith in an interview by Jonathan Safran Foer. See photos from the reading (copyright by Star Black):

Writers Sarah Arvio, Jill Bialosky, Honor Moore, Victoria Redel and Mark Rudman read from the Euripides play, “Daughters of Troy,” translated by Mark Rudman and Katherine Washburn in Euripides, 3.

Part of PEN World Voices, this event celebrates the landmark new Graywolf anthology New European Poets.

2-3:15pm: Editorial Panel Discussion, featuring Rika Lesser, Christopher Bakken, Marilyn Hacker and Alissa Valles. Moderated by anthology editor Kevin Prufer.

3:30-4:45pm: Poetry Reading, featuring Pete Covino, Marilyn Hacker, Rika Lesser, Christopher Bakken, Murat Nemet-Nejat, Adam J. Sorkin, and Alissa Valles. Moderated by anthology editor Wayne Miller.

Co-sponsored with Graywolf Press, the Poetry Society of America, and PEN America. The PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature is a week-long celebration of world literature, featuring 160 writers, from 41 countries, speaking 18 different languages, exploring the theme of Evolution/Revolution. New York City, April 27-May 3, 2009. http://www.pen.org/festival

Honoring a thrilling American poet, on the occasion of the Knopf publication of his new book, The Dance Most of All. Featuring Jack Gilbert with Linda Gregg, Mary Karr, Henry Lyman, Meghan O’Rourke, Gerald Stern, and others.

Co-sponsored by the Poetry Society of America, the Academy of American Poets, Poets House, and Alfred A. Knopf