All events are free and open to the public. Times and locations are subject to change. Please check this page or call (585) 395-2503 for updates.
Sept. 18, 2024, 7:30 p.m. | Fannie Barrier Williams Liberal Arts Building
Brockport Writers Forum: Karin Lin-Greenberg
Award-winning novelist will kick off the Fall 2024 season of the Brockport Writers Forum.
Karin Lin-Greenberg’s debut novel You Are Here, centered on a going-out-of-business shopping mall in upstate New York, won raves from The Washington Post, Oprah Daily, Good Morning America, Elle, Publisher’s Weekly, Library Journal, Time Magazine, People, Shondaland, and Ms. Her first book, Faulty Predictions, won the 2013 Flannery O’Connor Award in Short Fiction, and her stories have appeared in literary journals including The Antioch Review,Boulevard, Colorado Review, New England Review, Shenandoah, The Southern Review, Story, and Virginia Quarterly Review. Her short story “Housekeeping” received a Pushcart Prize.She teaches at Siena College.
Oct. 9, 2024, 7:30 p.m. | Fannie Barrier Williams Liberal Arts Building
Brockport Writers Forum: Heidi Macpherson
Heidi Macpherson reads from her debut collection of poems, Mo(u)rning Rituals.
Originally from Minnesota, Dr. Macpherson emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1990 and lived there for 22 years. She taught literature and creative writing at the University of Central Lancashire before serving as dean and provost at universities in the UK and US. She became the 7th President of SUNY Brockport in 2015. Her previous books include Women’s Movement(2000), Courting Failure(2007), Transatlantic Women’s Literature(2008), and The Cambridge Introduction to Margaret Atwood(2010) in addition to two co-edited collections of essays and a three-volume encyclopedia set. Her poetry has been published in a variety of online literary journals. She writes creatively under her birthname, Heidi Slettedahl, and is currently working on a novel.
Oct. 16, 2024, 7:30 p.m. | Fannie Barrier Williams Liberal Arts Building
Brockport Writers Forum: Scott Chaskey
A poet and leader of the community farming movement reads from his book Soil and Spirit.
A pioneer of the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement, for thirty years Scott Chaskey cultivated more than sixty crops for the Peconic Land Trust at Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett, New York, one of the original CSAs in the country. His poems have appeared widely in literary journals since the early seventies, and his nonfiction books include Seedtime: On the History, Husbandry, Politics and Promise of Seeds and This Common Ground: Seasons on an Organic Farm, both published by Penguin Books. Of his latest book Jane Brox wrote, “Soil and Spirit stands as a beautiful meditation on the endless richness of Earth’s rocks, fungi, herbs, vegetables, fruits, and trees, and our place among them as expressed in word and deed.”
Please also join us for a community event at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, October 15 at the Morgan-Manning House, 151 Main Street in Brockport, where Scott Chaskey will speak and answer questions about native plants, pollinators, and organic gardening. Presented with the support of Gary Skoog and BISCO.
Nov. 6, 2024, 7:30 p.m. | Brockport Downtown (REOC)
Brockport Writers Forum: Alicia Elliott
Award-winning Mohawk writer Alicia Elliott presents the Ingersoll Reading.
Alicia Elliott is a Haudenosaunee writer living in Brantford, Ontario. Her first novel, And Then She Fell, was a national bestseller in Canada, won an Indigenous First Voices Award and an Amazon First Novel Award, and was listed as a best book of 2023 by the Globe and Mail and the CBC. Her 2019 memoir A Mind Spread Out On The Ground won praise from The New York Times, Vogue, Booklist, the Globe and Mail, and the Toronto Star, among many others; the Canadian magazine Chatelaine called it a “bitingly smart, often funny, consistently challenging collection” in which Elliott “comes at matters of trauma, racism and reconciliation with dazzlingly fresh perspectives.” Elliott’s short fiction has been anthologized in the Best American Short Stories and Best Canadian Stories.
While we hope you can join us in person, this event is also viewable by livestream on our YouTube page.
Presented with the support of the Ingersoll Family Foundation.
Nov. 20, 2024, 7:30 p.m. | Fannie Barrier Williams Liberal Arts Building
Brockport Writers Forum: K.E. Semmel
Join acclaimed translator and writer K.E. Semmel as he reads from his highly anticipated debut novel. With works featured in prestigious publications like Ontario Review, Lithub, The Writer’s Chronicle, The Southern Review, and The Washington Post, Semmel brings his expert storytelling and sharp literary insight to our campus.
His translations from Danish and Norwegian include novels by Naja Marie Aidt, Karin Fossum, Simon Fruelund, and Jussi Adler Olsen, among others. Semmel’s debut novel, The Book of Losman, tells the story of an American translator living alone in Copenhagen who attempts to treat his Tourette Syndrome with a mysterious experimental drug. Rion Amilcar Scott writes, “The Book of Losman asks important questions about memory, identity, and the things we choose from our personal histories to both passively and actively build our fractured selves. It is also riotously funny.”
This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Women & Gender Studies’ minor in Disability Studies.
Dec. 4, 2024, 7:30 p.m. | Fannie Barrier Williams Liberal Arts Building, McCue Auditorium
Brockport Writers Forum & English Club Present: Open Mic Reading
Bring a page or two of your own work to read aloud, or just listen.
Students, staff, faculty, and friends are invited to join us for a friendly, non-competitive end-of-semester open mic reading.
Bring a poem or a page or two of your own fiction or nonfiction to read out loud.
This event is co-sponsored by the Brockport Writers Forum and the English Club.