Past Visiting Writers
Sir Andrew Motion, Former Poet Laureate for the United Kingdom— Sir Andrew Motion was born in London and raised in Stisted, Essex. He is the author of many books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Motion鈥檚 poetry collections include听Coming in to Land: Selected Poems 1975-2015听(2017),听The Customs House听(2012),听The Cinder Path听(2009), and听Public Property听(2002), his first collection as UK Poet Laureate. Motion鈥檚 collections of nonfiction prose include biographies of Thomas Wainewright (2000), of Philip Larkin (1993), and of John Keats (1997). His novels include听The Invention of Dr. Cake听(2003) and听Silver: Return to Treasure Island听(2012). Motion was knighted in 2009. From 1999鈥�2009, he was poet laureate for the UK. In 2015, he moved to Baltimore, Maryland, to become the Homewood Professor of the Arts at Johns Hopkins University.
Michael Collier,听former director of the Bread Loaf Conference, is the author of six books of poems:听The Clasp and Other Poems; The Folded Heart; The Neighbor; The Ledge,听a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize;听Dark Wild Realm听and most recently,听My Bishop and Other Poems.听He is also co-editor, along with Charles Baxter and Edward Hirsch, of听A William Maxwell Portrait.听Collier has received Guggenheim and Thomas Watson fellowships, two NEA fellowships, a 鈥淒iscovery鈥�/The Nation听Award, the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America, and a Pushcart Prize. Poet Laureate of Maryland from 2001鈥�2004, he teaches in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Maryland.
Pam Houston— Pam has taught writing workshops all over the world along with her Professorship of English at University of California Davis and in the Institute of American Indian Arts MFA Program. She is the author of multiple books, including the best seller听Cowboys Are My Weakness. Her new book听Deep Creek Finding Hope In The High Country听has her visiting 海角社区stown on a countrywide book tour. Don鈥檛 miss out on a rare opportunity to learn from a writing coach well known for helping writers become the best they can be, including the Pulitzer Prize finalist Tommy Orange. This will be a small intimate group with limited space, so please register early.
Jane Brox– Jane Brox鈥檚 fifth book,听Silence,听was published in January 2019, and was named an Editors鈥� Choice by听The New York Times Book Review.听Her most recent book,听Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light, was named one of the top ten nonfiction books of 2010 by听Time听magazine. She is also the author of听Clearing Land: Legacies of the American Farm;听Five Thousand Days Like This One, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in nonfiction; and听Here and Nowhere Else, which won the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award. She has received the New England Book Award for nonfiction, and her essays have appeared in many anthologies including听Best American Essays,听The Norton Book of Nature Writing, and the听Pushcart Prize Anthology. She has been awarded grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Maine Arts Commission. She has taught at Harvard University and Bowdoin College, and is currently on the faculty of Lesley University鈥檚 low-residency MFA Program. She lives in Brunswick, Maine.
Nancy Naomi Carlson— Nancy Naomi Carlson is a poet, translator, editor, and essayist who has authored ten titles (six translated), including translations of Ren茅 Char (France), Suzanne Dracius (Martinique), and Abdourahman Waberi (Djibouti). She has received grants from the NEA and Maryland Council for the Arts, and was a finalist for the Best Translated Book Award, as well as the CLMP Firecracker Poetry Award. Her work has appeared in such journals as the听American Poetry Review, The Georgia Review,听Poetry,听and听The Paris Review.听A senior translation editor for听Tupelo Quarterly,听she holds two doctorates, including one in Foreign Language Methodology. She has been decorated with the rank of Chevalier in the Order of the French Academic Palms.听
Jennifer Grotz- Jennifer Grotz听is the author of three books of poetry, most recently听Window Left Open.听The Needle,听which received the Paul Nasser Prize and the 2012 Best Book of Poetry Award by the Texas Institute of Letters, was named one of the 鈥�5 Best Books of Poetry of the Year鈥� by National Public Radio. Her first听book,听Cusp, received the Katharine Bakeless Nason Prize and the Natalie Ornish Best First听Book of Poetry Prize from the Texas Institute of Letters. Her translations from the French of听the poems of Patrice de La Tour du Pin are collected in听Psalms of All My Days. She is also the translator of a novel,听Rochester Knockings,听of the Tunisian-born author Hubert Haddad.听Other poems, essays, translations, and reviews听have appeared widely in journals such as听The New Yorker, The New Republic,听The New York Review of Books,听Kenyon Review, New England听Review, Ploughshares,听as well as in the听Pushcart Prize听and four volumes of the听Best American听Poetry听anthologies. A recipient of awards from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the听Rona Jaffe Foundation, and the Camargo Foundation, she teaches at the University of听Rochester and serves as the director of the Bread Loaf Writers鈥� Conferences.
Roser Caminals — Roser Caminals earned her M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Barcelona. A native of Barcelona, she is the author of seven novels and one non-fiction book. Her work, published in three languages (Catalan, English, and Spanish), and in paperback, hardback, and digital form, has been featured at the International Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany. She also has an interest in literary translation. Her English rendition of the Spanish classic听Los Pazos de Ulloa (The House of Ulloa),听by Emilia Pardo Baz谩n, was published by The University of Georgia Press and earned her a grant-award from the Spanish Embassy in 1992. In 1996 she won first prize in narrative at the Jocs Florals de la Di脿spora, a contest for Catalan writers outside of Catalonia, for听Les herbes secretes (The Secret Herbs).听Since then she has received critical acclaim in the Spanish media (newspapers, radio, and television), as well as in the Mexican newspaper听La Jornada.听Her novel听Cinc-cents bars i una llibreria (Five-Hundred Bars and One Bookstore)听was celebrated in La Vanguardia as 鈥渙ne of the best Catalan novels written in recent years鈥�. Roser Caminals is currently an Emerita Professor of Spanish at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, and is married to author William Heath. The title of her upcoming book is听The American Seduction.听For more information about Roser Caminals, you may go听.
Temple Cone- Temple Cone听is the inaugural Poet Laureate for the city of Annapolis and Professor of English at the U.S. Naval Academy. He is the author of four books of poetry:听Guzzle,听from FutureCycle Press (2016);听That Singing,听from March Street Press (2011);听The Broken Meadow,听which received the 2010 Old Seventy Creek Poetry Press Series Prize; and听No Loneliness,听which received the 2009 FutureCycle Press Poetry Book Prize. He has also published six poetry chapbooks, as well as reference works on Cormac McCarthy鈥檚听The Road,听Walt Whitman, and 20th-Century American Poetry. He holds a Ph.D. in Literature from the University of Wisconsin, an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Virginia, an M.A. in Creative Writing from Hollins University, and a B.A. in Philosophy from Washington and Lee University.