Visiting Writers and Open Mics

David Wanczyk is the author of Beep: Inside the Unseen World of Baseball for the Blind (2018), the first book about the sport of Beep Baseball.

He has published essays and poems in American Literary Review, Boston Globe Magazine, The Laurel Review, New Letters, Texas Monthly, Rattle, Smartish Pace, and others. He teaches at Ohio University and, since 2015, has served as the editor of the literary journal, New Ohio Review.

National Book Award winner Phil Klay examines war, service, and the lasting impact of military life. National Book Award–winning author and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Phil Klay examines the realities of military service and its lasting impact. Drawing from his experiences in Iraq and acclaimed works including Redeployment and Uncertain Ground, he explores questions of war, faith, guilt, masculinity, and collective responsibility.

Reserve a spot today!

Alberto Ríos, Arizona’s inaugural poet laureate and a recent chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, is the author of twelve collections of poetry, most recently, Not Go Away Is My Name, preceded by A Small Story about the Sky, The Dangerous Shirt, and The Theater of Night, which received the PEN/Beyond Margins Award. Published in the New Yorker, Paris Review, Ploughshares, and other journals, he has also written three short story collections and a memoir, Capirotada, about growing up on the Mexican border, with a novel forthcoming, A Good Map of All Things. Ríos is also the host of the PBS programs Art in the 48 and Books & Co.  University Professor of Letters, Regents’ Professor, Virginia G. Piper Chair in Creative Writing, and the Katharine C. Turner Chair in English, Ríos has taught at Arizona State University since 1982. In 2017, he was named director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing.

Sunni Brown Wilkinson is a poet and essayist. Her newest poetry collection, Rodeo (Autumn House Press), was selected by Patricia Smith as winner of the 2024 Donald Justice Poetry Prize and was longlisted for the 2026 PEN/Voelcker Poetry Award. Other books are The Marriage of the Moon and the Field (Black Lawrence Press) and The Ache & The Wing (winner of the Sundress Chapbook Prize). Her poetry has also been awarded New Ohio Review’s NORward Poetry Prize, the Joy Harjo Prize, the Association of Mormon Letters Poetry Award, and the Sherwin Howard Award. She teaches creative writing at Weber State University and lives in Weber County with her husband and three sons. In July 2026 she was named poet laureate of Ogden.

American Patchwork Quartet 

Write a song. Win. Perform it onstage. American Patchwork Quartet invites Weber State students to explore the American protest-song tradition, write the next verse, and bring a new song into the convo. Through the American Protest Song Challenge, students will dig into the tradition, write something of their own, and get a shot at taking the stage with APQ. Participants will also receive a free ticket to the October 14 concert, where the quartet cracks open the American folk tradition and rebuilds it for the present. Participate in this amazing songwriting workshop!