Conrad Hilberry
September 24, 8:00 PM, Bernhard Center 208

Conrad Hilberry is the author of numerous books, including After Music, Luke
Karamazov, The Fingernail of Luck, Player Piano, and Sorting the Smoke. He
is a professor emeritus at Kalamazoo College and has been co-editor of Contemporary
Michigan Poetry: Poems from the Third Coast.

Stuart Dybek
November 19, 8:00 PM, WMU Bernhard Center 208

Stuart Dybek is the author of three books of fiction: I Sailed With Magellan,
The Coast of Chicago, and Childhood and Other Neighborhoods. Both I
Sailed With Magellan and The Coast of Chicago were New York Times Notable
Books, and The Coast of Chicago was a One Book One Chicago selection.
Dybek has also published two collections of poetry: Streets in Their Own
Ink and Brass Knuckles. His fiction, poetry, and nonfiction have appeared in
The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Atlantic, Poetry, Tin House, and many other
magazines, and have been widely anthologized, including work in both Best
American Fiction and Best American Poetry. Among Dybek’s numerous
awards are a $500,000 2007 MacArthur Fellowship, a PEN/Malamud Prize
“for distinguished achievement in the short story,” a Lannan Award, aWhiting
Writers Award, an Award from the Academy of Arts and Letters, several
O.Henry Prizes, and fellowships from the NEA and the Guggenheim Foundation.
He is DistinguishedWriter in Residence at Northwestern University and
a member of the permanent faculty forWestern Michigan University’s Prague
Summer Program.

Alicia Ostriker
December 2, 8:00 PM,WMU Bernhard Center 208

Alicia Ostriker, a poet and critic, has published eleven volumes of poetry, including
The Volcano Sequence and No Heaven. Her most recent prose book is
Dancing at the Devil’s Party: Essays on Poetry, Politics, and the Erotic. Her
poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, The Atlantic,
Paris Review, Ontario Review, The Nation, and many other journals
and anthologies. Twice a National Book Award finalist, she has also received
awards from the Poetry Society of America, the San Francisco Poetry Center,
and the Paterson Poetry Center, among others. Ostriker lives in Princeton, is
Professor emerita of English at Rutgers University, and currently teaches in
the low-residency Poetry MFA program of New England College.

James Daniels &András Visky
December 7, 8:00 PM, York Arena Theater

James Daniels has performed in roles such as Vershinin in Three Sisters,
Prospero in The Tempest, Hal Carter in Picnic, Iago in Othello, the Gentleman
Caller in The Glass Menegerie, and the SamuraiWarrior in Rashomon. He is
the author of four one-person shows, Edwin Booth: The Falconer’s Voice,
Sam Houston: Standing In His Own Blood, Custer Rides, and Wyatt Earp:
The Last Man Standing. Jim has directed for Hope Summer Repertory Theatre
in Holland, Michigan, the Michigan Shakespeare Festival at the Celery
Flats Historical District, the Durango Shakespeare Festival in Durango, Colorado,
and theWagonWheel Theatre inWarsaw, Indiana. He has directed numerous
productions for theWestern Michigan University where he is a
professor in the theater department.

András Visky was born in 1957 in Târgu-Mureş, Romania, and currently lives
with his wife and four children in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He is not only a
playwright but an essayist, poet, philosopher, theologian, dramaturge, publisher
and lecturer at Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj. His numerous awards
include the Joszef Attila Award, the highest literary award given by the Hungarian
Government. He is presently the 2009-2010 Spoelhof Chair at Calvin
College.