The Boise State Creative Writing MFA Reading Series announced their line-up of visiting writers for Fall 2024. The list includes a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, a National Book Critics Circle Award winning poet, a recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant, and a renowned editor of a small press. This fall’s line-up includes Luke Roberts, D.A. Powell, Peter Cole and Adam Johnson.
Each semester, the MFA Reading Series brings acclaimed poets and fiction writers to campus. The visiting writers give readings, sign books, and meet with Boise State creative writing MFA students. Free and open to the public, all the readings take place in the historic Hemingway Center on campus.
Fall 2024 MFA Reading Series Events
Luke Roberts – 7:30 PM, Friday, September 6
D.A. Powell – 7:30 PM, Friday, September 27
Peter Cole – 7:30 PM, Friday, October 25
Adam Johnson – 7 PM, Tuesday, November 5
About the visiting writers
Luke Roberts
Born in 1987, Luke Roberts grew up in the north of England. The author of “Home Radio” (2021), “Glacial Decoys” (2021), and other works of poetry and prose, Roberts, along with Amy Tobin, runs the small press Distance No Object. He has co-edited books by Mark Hyatt and Cecilia Vicuña. His books of criticism include “Living in History: Poetry in Britain, 1945-1979” (2024). He lives and works in London.
D.A. Powell
The author of five collections, D.A. Powell received the National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry for his book, “Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys.” Powell’s most recent book, “Repast: Tea, Lunch & Cocktails” comprises a reissue of his first three collections with an introduction by novelist David Leavitt. The New Yorker called “Repast” “a jagged, one-of-a-kind opus, which endures both as a personal testimony and as the rare poetic work that manages to capture the ineffable on the page.” Powell’s honors include the Kingsley Tufts Prize in Poetry, the Shelley Memorial Prize from the Poetry Society of America, and the John Updike Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. A former Briggs-Copeland Lecturer in Poetry at Harvard University, Powell has taught at Stanford, Columbia, University of Texas at Austin, University of Iowa’s Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and Davidson College. A Professor at University of San Francisco, Powell lives in San Francisco.
Peter Cole
The author of six collections of poems, Peter Cole’s most recent collection, “Draw Me After” (FSG), drew widespread acclaim. In a starred review in Booklist, Michael Autrey wrote, “It is rare for a poet to produce a book as memorable as “The Invention of Influence” (2014) and then bring forth another title that is just as distinct and remarkable […] An outstanding collection.” Cole’s many volumes of translation from medieval and modern Hebrew and Arabic include “The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950–1492,” “The Poetry of Kabbalah: Mystical Verse from the Jewish Tradition,” as well as contemporary poetry and fiction by Aharon Shabtai, Taha Muhammad Ali, Yoel Hoffmann, and others. Cole has received numerous honors for his work, including an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and a National Jewish Book Award for Poetry, and a MacArthur Fellowship.
Adam Johnson
A Professor of English with emphasis in creative writing at Stanford University, Adam Johnson authored several books, including “Fortune Smiles,” which won the National Book Award. His New York Times bestselling novel, “The Orphan Master’s Son” received the Pulitzer Prize. Of the novel, the critic Michiko Kakutani wrote, “Mr. Johnson has written a daring and remarkable novel, a novel that not only opens a frightening window on the mysterious kingdom of North Korea, but one that also excavates the very meaning of love and sacrifice.” Johnson’s honors include a Whiting Award, the Story Prize, The Sunday Times Short Story Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and Fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Academy in Berlin. His stories have appeared in Esquire, GQ, Playboy, Harper’s Magazine, Granta, The Paris Review, The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. Born in South Dakota, Johnson is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. His teaching and research interests include the development of the novel, indigeneity, the oral tradition, counter narrative, trauma theory and speculative fiction.