Annie Liontas: Monday, November 16th, 2015 at 6:00 pm

Philadelphia author and editor Annie Liontas will be reading from her critically acclaimed debut novel, Let Me Explain You (Scribner) on Monday, November 16, 2015. The reading will take place on the campus of West Chester University in the Philips Memorial Autograph Library at 6:00PM. The reading is free and open to the public. Ms. Liontas will also meet with students from our English major for an intimate reception to talk about craft in the context of their own writing projects. That reception is from 3:45-5:00 in Main Hall 201.

About the Author: Annie Liontas is an important emerging writer whose debut novel, Let Me Explain You, was featured in The New York Times Book Review as Editor's Choice and was selected by the ABA as a 2015 Indies Introduce Debut and Indies Next title. Her forthcoming co-edited collection, A Manner of Being: Writers on their Mentors, is drawing advance praise for its nearly 70 short essays from prominent writers on what they most remember of their writing mentors. Additionally, Ms. Liontas has also been dedicated to urban education, working alongside fellow teachers and youth in Newark and Philadelphia, since 2003. For more information about Annie Liontas, please visit her website.

Andrew Ervin: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 at 8:00 pm

Philadelphia author and literary critic Andrew Ervin will be reading from his newest book Burning Down George Orwell's House (Soho Press, 2015) on Wednesday, April 29, 2015. The reading will take place at 8:00 pm at Walnut St. Labs, 23 N. Walnut St., West Chester, PA 19380. The venue is located in the heart of the West Chester Borough, less than a mile north of the WCU campus. Burning Down George Orwell's House has been acclaimed as “a vastly entertaining novel, cunningly observed and delicately flavored with the very finest Scotch whiskey on the planet,” and “a serious meditation on just how Orwellian our world has really become.”

About the Author: Ervin's first book was a collection of novellas, Extraordinary Renditions (Coffee House Press), which Publishers Weekly included on its list of the Best Books of 2010 and the Huffington Post called "one of the year's most memorable works of fiction." Ervin's short fiction has appeared in Conjunctions, The Southern Review & Fiction International; his reviews have appeared in the New York Times Book Review, USA Today, The Believer, The Washington Post and The San Francisco Chronicle; and his interviews have appeared in Tin House, The Rumpus, Ninth Letter, Rain Taxi, and American Book Review. For more information about Andrew Ervin, please visit his website.

R. Erica Doyle: Thursday, March 26, 2015 at 3:20 pm and 7:30 pm

Poet and educator R. Erica Doyle will visit WCU on Thursday, March 26, 2015 to give a craft talk and reading and lead a discussion of LGBTQ issues in the classroom. Doyle's craft talk will take place at 3:20 pm in Anderson 111; her reading will take place at 7:30 pm in Swope Music Building 100 (Ware Family Recital Hall).

About the Author: R. Erica Doyle is the acclaimed author of Proxy, which won a Lambda Literary Award and a Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America (2014). A Caribbean-American poet, Doyle lives and works in New York City. Her work has been published and/or is forthcoming in the following journals: Sinister Wisdom, Ploughshares, Callaloo, Blithe House Quarterly, Good Foot, Boog City & BLOOM. A Cave Canem Fellow, Doyle has also been recognized by the New York Foundation on the Arts and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Her work has also been published in many highly respected anthologies, including Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles (2008) and Best American Poetry (2001). For more information about R. Erica Doyle, please visit her website.

Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz: Thursday, February 12, 2015, at 3:20 pm and 7:00 pm

Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz will read and discuss her newest book, Dr. Mütter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine (Gotham/Penguin, 2014) at WCU on Thursday, February 12. Aptowicz will give a craft talk at 3:20 pm and a reading at 7:00 pm. Both events will take place in the Philips Autograph Library, located in Philips Hall. Dr. Mütter's Marvels is an acclaimed biography of Thomas Dent Mütter, a visionary nineteenth-century surgeon and influential figure in the birth of modern medicine. The book recently debuted at #7 on the New York Times Bestseller list for Books about Health.

About the Author: Aptowicz is a New York Times-bestselling author whose recent awards include the ArtsEdge Writer-In-Residency at the University of Pennsylvania (2010-2011), a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry (2011), and the Amy Clampitt Residency (2013). A three-time National Slam Champion and a native of Philadelphia, Aptowicz has an impressive publishing record in both poetry and nonfiction. She has published six books of poetry; her most recent, The Year of No Mistakes, won the Writers League of Texas Book of the Year Award (2013-14). Her book chronicling the rise of slam, Words In Your Face: A Guided Tour Through 20 Years of New York City Poetry Slam (2008), garnered high praise from many poets and critics. Her work in both genres has been published in Rattle, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, PANK, La Petite Zine, decomP, and Umbrella. For more information about Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, please visit her website.