Wordfest Readers Over the Years

Among the following poets, fiction writers, nonfiction writers, and playwrights who have visited Valparaiso University to offer presentations of their work and meet with students are a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, a former Poet Laureate of the United States, and various authors who have been recipients of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, or other distinguished honors for their writing:

Lee K. Abbott, Agha Shahid Ali, David Baker, John Balaban, Fredrick Barton, Jill Pelaez Baumgaertner, Madison Smartt Bell, Kimberly Blaeser, Nikos Boris, Kay Boyle, Bruce Burgun, Sharon Bryan, Edward Byrne, Philip Caputo, Amy Clampitt, Patricia Clark, Mark Conway, David Dabydeen, Benjamin DeMott, W.S. DiPiero, Stuart Dybek, Gene Fehler, Wayne Fields, Melissa Fraterrigo, Helen Frost, John Gardner, John Gehm, Reginald Gibbons, Gary Gildner, Nikki Giovanni, Vince Gotera, Emily Grosholz, Larry Heinemann, C.J. Hribal, Charles Johnson, Stacey Klemstein, Carolyn Knox, Susan Kraus, Lawrence Lichty, Laurence Lieberman, Thomas Lynch, Michael Martone, Heather McHugh, Paul Muldoon, Kathleen Mullen, Susan Neville, Kathleen Norris, Tim O'Brien, Carole Oles, Chuck Olin, Scott Olsen, Harry Mark Petrakis, Yuri Rasovsky, John Ruff, Scott Russell Sanders, Sherod Santos, Valerie Sayers, Susan Fromberg Schaeffer, Herb Scott, Alan Shapiro, Shawn Shiflett, Robert Siegel, Beth Simon, James Park Sloan, Dave Smith, Sandra Spanier, Sheryl St. Germain, Rene Steinke, James Still, Mark Strand, Rick Telander, Richard Tillinghast, Daniel Tobin, Catherine Tufariello, Derek Walcott, Bruce Weigl, James Welch, Paul West, Robley Wilson, Jr., Larry Woiwoide, Gene Wolfe, and Charles Wright.

Wordfest Writing Contests

Wordfest sponsors annual literary contests each spring semester in the genres of short fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for students. The deadline each year is in the end of March.
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