Contemporary Writers Series
Information on the 2009-2010 series
Established in 1997, the Canisius College Contemporary Writers Series brings fiction writers and poets of national stature to the Canisius campus to read from their work and to meet with students, faculty, and members of our community. The series is made possible through the generous support of the John R. Oishei Foundation, the Hassett and Scoma Endowments, and with the cooperation of Just Buffalo Literary Center and Talking Leaves Books.The series is coordinated with Canisius College courses taught in a variety of disciplines—English, History, Women’s Studies. Students in these courses are given the opportunity to meet the authors of the books they study, to engage them in conversation about art, politics, and history, and to gain a unique understanding of how literature is made.
All readings include a question-and-answer period, a reception, and a book-signing; all are free and open to the public. We welcome high school and college students and their instructors, our Western New York neighbors—all passionate readers and students of serious literature—to join the conversation.
Visiting writers have included some of our best writers, from new voices like Junot Diaz, Lorrie Moore, and Edwidge Danticat to well-established, award-winning authors like Mary Gordon, Tim O’Brien, Ha Jin, and Gloria Naylor. The series maintains a special focus on writers with strong ties to our area: Buffalo natives Connie Porter and Lucille Clifton, as well as upstate writers like Richard Russo and William Kennedy.
The series is coordinated by Canisius English professor and writer-in-residence Mick Cochrane. His first novel, Flesh Wounds (Nan Talese/Doubleday), was named a finalist in Barnes and Noble’s Discover Great New Writers Competition. His second novel, Sport (St. Martin’s/Dunne Books), was selected for the annual New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age List. His stories have been published in a number of literary journals, including The Cincinnati Review, Kansas Quarterly, Northwest Review, and Minnesota Monthly. He’s also published critical essays on Raymond Carver, Bob Dylan, baseball literature, and the art of biography, and he’s received grants from the Saltonstall Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was named Peter Canisius Distinguished Teaching Professor three times. His latest book is a novel for young adults, The Girl Who Threw Butterflies (Knopf). You may contact him with questions, suggestions, and comments: cochrane@canisius.edu