Cornell Reading Series features multimedia and interdisciplinary authors for spring 2020

Since its inception, the Barbara & David Zalaznick Reading Series has brought some of the most exciting and innovative award-winning authors to read from their work at Cornell’s Ithaca campus—and Spring 2020 will be no different. Each reading is followed by a catered reception and book signing where students, faculty and the public have the opportunity to interact with the writers and poets; books are made available for purchase courtesy of Ithaca’s Buffalo Street Books. The series is sponsored by Cornell’s Creative Writing Program and all events are free and open to the public.

Fiction writer Emily Fridlund and poet Joanie Mackowski will premiere the series with the Richard Cleaveland Memorial Reading on Feb. 6 at 4:30p.m. in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, 132 Goldwin Smith Hall.

Fridlund’s first novel, "History of Wolves," was a finalist for the 2017 Man Booker Prize and the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction. Fridlund’s debut collection of stories, "Catapult," won the Mary McCarthy Prize. Her short fiction has appeared in a variety of journals, including Boston Review, ZYZZYVA, and Southwest Review. She grew up in Minnesota and teaches writing at Cornell University.

Mackowski’s collections of poems are "The Zoo" and "View from a Temporary Window." She has won awards from the Kate and Kingsley Tufts Foundation, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, and the Poetry Society of America. An associate professor in Cornell University’s English Department and Creative Writing Program, she has previously worked as a French translator, a journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area, and a juggler.

The Cleaveland Reading provides an invaluable opportunity for faculty to share their work with the community and their own students, not as teachers but as writers and poets.

Writer and activist M. Evelina Galang continues the series on Mar. 12 at 4:30p.m. Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, 132 Goldwin Smith Hall. Galang is the author of the story collection "Her Wild American Self," novels "One Tribe" and "Angel De La Luna and the Fifth Glorious Mystery," the nonfiction work "Lolas’ House: Filipino Women Living With War," and the editor of "Screaming Monkeys: Critiques of Asian American Images." Among her numerous awards are the 2004 Association of Writers & Writing Programs Prize for the Novel, the 2007 Global Filipino Literary Award for One Tribe, the 2004 Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Awards Advancing Human Rights, and a 2002 Senior Research Fellowship from Fulbright. Galang teaches in the MFA Creative Writing Program at the University of Miami and is core faculty and President of the Board of Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation. Galang will also be teaching a seminar as the Zalaznick Distinguished Visiting Writer for the Department of English.

Screenwriter and novelist Patrick Somerville will close the series on Apr. 30 at 4:30p.m. in Rhodes-Rawlings Auditorium, G70 Klarman Hall. A Cornell alum (MFA ’05), Somerville is the creator of the series "Maniac" (Netflix), as well as two upcoming series, "Station 11" and "Made For Love" (HBO Max). He got his start writing for television on the FX drama "The Bridge" and later wrote for the second and third seasons of HBO's "The Leftovers." Somerville is the author of two short story collections and the novels "This Bright River" and "The Cradle." He grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and lives with his wife and three kids in Los Angeles.

American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation will be provided for these readings.

Worried about parking? TCAT bus route 10 (Commons-Cornell loop) leaves Seneca Street station every 12 minutes on Thursday afternoons until 5:58 p.m. and stops outside Klarman/Goldwin Smith Halls. After that, Route 10 runs every 24 minutes. Last trip from campus to downtown is at 7:30p.m. The cash fare for a single ride is $1.50. For short term parking options, visit cornell.edu/visit/parking or call Transportation Services at 607-255-4600.

For more information, visit english.cornell.edu/zalaznick, email creativewriting@cornell.edu or call 607-255-7847.