Living Writers

A signature program of Colgate University since 1980, Living Writers is a master class in how works of literature come to be.

It’s free, and anyone can join: alumni, parents, faculty, staff, students, friends of the University. The only prerequisite is a passion for reading.

This fall’s lineup features nine stunning works by a range of writers from a range of regions, including Africa, the Caribbean, and the former Soviet Union. One writer on the list just published her first novel; another has won the Pulitzer Prize. Formally, the books run the gamut from poetry to essays to memoirs to stories to novels. Questions of home surface in many of them, as do questions of history—national as well as familial. Several speak directly to crises gripping our country right now, including the coronavirus pandemic and America’s history of racial injustice.

Living Writers is led by faculty in the Department of English with generous support from the Olive B. O'Connor Fund as well as the President and the Provost/Dean of the Faculty.

Each book has its own page to explore with author bios, podcasts, recommended resources, and more! For more information and to register for weekly events, click on each of the book titles in the upper left portion of this page.