Artists' Forum Welcomes Writer Diane Seuss on Nov. 14

Kalamazoo Valley’s Artists’ Forum presents a Thursday, Nov. 14 conversation with Pulitzer Prize finalist Diane Seuss called “Staying Home: Writing Where You Live,” and a reading and talk on the subject of writing from the rural imagination, “Writing Rural: Elevating the Twang.” Seuss will present a 3 p.m. workshop and will read from her works at 7:30 p.m. in the Student Commons Theater at the Texas Township Campus.

Seuss was born in Michigan City, Indiana, in 1956 and raised in Edwardsburg and Niles, Michigan. She studied at Kalamazoo College and Western Michigan University, where she received a master’s degree in social work.

Seuss is the author of four books of poetry: It Blows You Hollow (New Issues Press, 1998); Wolf Lake, White Gown Blown Open (University of Massachusetts Press, 2010), recipient of the Juniper Prize for Poetry; Four-Legged Girl (Graywolf Press, 2015), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry; and her most recent collection, Still Life with Two Dead Peacocks and a Girl, was released in 2018 by Graywolf Press and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry and the Los Angeles Times Poetry Prize. Frank: Sonnets is forthcoming from Graywolf Press in 2021.

Seuss was Writer in Residence at Kalamazoo College for nearly three decades. She has been the MacLean Distinguished Visiting Professor in the English Department at Colorado College, a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers Program, faculty member at Stonecoast Low-Residency MFA Program in Maine, and will be Visiting Writer and Professor for the MFA program at Washington University in St. Louis in 2020.

Since its inception in 1986, Kalamazoo Valley’s Artists’ Forum has exposed the Kalamazoo community and its students to a diverse collection of musicians, artists, writers, actors, singers, dancers and social commentators - including Mavis Staples, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Patty Griffin, David Sedaris, The Wailin’ Jennys and Chucho Valdés.

Through partial funding provided by The Gilmore Foundation, The Harold and Grace Upjohn Foundation and the KVCC Foundation, the Artists’ Forum has established a performance series that reflects the Kalamazoo community and broadens the perspective of the performing arts. Dave Posther is the Chair of Artists’ Forum at KVCC and is the Chair of the Photography and Film Department as well. Admission is free to both events. For the evening talk, doors will open at 6:45 p.m. Contact Dave Posther at 269.488.4476 or dposther@kvcc.edu for more information.