Visiting Writers & Open Mics

Visiting Writer Events

All events are free and open to the public!

Pictured: Kate Durbin, wearing yellow glasses

Virtual Visiting Writer: Ander Monson

Date: November 29, 2023
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location: Zoom
Meeting ID: 940 5056 3724
Passcode: monson

Ander Monson (bio to come)

Pictured:

Visiting Writer: Gene Kwak

Date: January 26, 2023
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location: Virtually on Zoom / Hetzel Hoellein room, Stewart Library
Join us for the reading virtually on Zoom or in the Stewart Library's Hetzel Hollein room, where there will be a simulcast streaming if students want to attend that way as well.
Register: Zoom Link

Bio
Gene Kwak has published fiction and nonfiction both in print and online in the The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Rumpus, Wigleaf, Redivider, Hobart, Electric Literature, and in the flash anthology Forward: 21st Century Flash Fiction. He teaches at the University of Nebraska Omaha. Go Home, Ricky! is his debut novel.

Pictured: Ashley Farmer

WSU Alumni Reading: Maurya Brand, Benjamin Favero, and Porter Lunceford

Date: February 28, 2023
Time: 6:00 p.m. Mountain Time (US and Canada)
Location: ZOOM
Meeting ID: 912 8134 8074
Passcode: harvest

Bios
Maurya Brand studied creative writing and visual art at Weber State University and is currently an MFA candidate in University of Idaho's creative writing program. She is interested in the ways zines and other forms of alternative press can make literature more accessible. Her writing lately has gravitated towards themes of parenthood and change. She enjoys hiking, games, printmaking, and spending time with her spouse and toddler.

Porter Lunceford is a queer poet and playwright from Northern Utah. Porter holds a BA in English with a Creative Writing emphasis from Weber State University (2020), where they were a writing tutor for four years. Porter is an MFA candidate in poetry at UMass Amherst (2025) and a Program Assistant for the Juniper Summer Writing Institute and Juniper Institute for Young Writers.

Benjamin Favero is a writer from Ogden, Utah—there he got his BA in Creative Writing at Weber State University. Currently he lives in Las Vegas with his wife, Jenae, and daughter, Halle, as he pursues a Masters of Fine Arts in poetry at UNLV. Along with responsibilities of a grad student, he reads for Witness Magazine and teases the idea of being a stay-at-home dad

Pictured:

NULC

Date: March 30-April 01
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location: TBD
For full information about NULC:
https://www.weber.edu/nulc

FEATURING AWARD-WINNING VISITING AUTHOR:

Louise Glück

We are excited to welcome award-winning poet, Louise Glück who will share her insights and advice for budding writers.

Please plan to join and help us maintain the excellence of this conference and the unique opportunities it offers undergraduate students. We hope NULC continues for many years to come!

Sarah Vause and Mike Vause, Co-Directors of the National Undergraduate Literature Conference
Dana Gibson, Executive Operations Manager

Pictured:

Visiting Writers: Steve Timm & Ogden Poet Laureate Angelika Brewer

Date: April 18, 2023
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location: Hetzel Hoellein Room in Stewart Library

About Steve Timm
Steve Timm’s newest book of poems is Rule of Composition (Bananaquit Press, 2022). It was preceded by This’s That (There Press, 2016), Un storia (BlazeVOX Books, 2010) and Disparity (BlazeVOX Books, 2006). Many of his poems can be found in strewin's across the internet, too. His live performances are known for ending explosively with an improvised sound poem. A native of Kenosha, Wisconsin, he lives with his wife Shari Bernstein and son Alex (who finds his poems “interesting”) in Madison, Wisconsin where he teaches English as a second language at the University of Wisconsin.

About Angelika Brewer
Angelika Brewer is an award-winning writer and journalist, an artist and the Poet Laureate of Ogden City.

Angelika believes in the power of creativity and its remarkable ability to change the world. She has dedicated her adult life to creating space and opportunity for others to dance with their creativity and let it bloom. She consistently makes efforts to promote accessibility and inclusivity in the arts.
She is responsible for the “Ogden Ar(t)chives Mailbox” installation, giving the opportunity for the works of residents and visitors to be published and historically archived.

Angelika is an Ogden Contemporary Arts: The Artist Factory teacher with The Ogden-Weber Boys and Girls Club, where she teaches creative writing skills to youth. She visits schools, events and gatherings across the state to speak, perform, and teach workshops.

She is an avid supporter of local creatives and is proud of her maximalist collection of locally made arts. She loves spending time with family, being outdoors and dancing at every chance she gets.