As part of the Creative Writing Reading Series, acclaimed writers Kaveh Akbar and Franny Choi will join Colorado State University’s literary community for an evening of readings Friday, Oct. 6 at 7:30 p.m. in the University Ballroom of the Lory Student Center.
Natalia Sperry, a first-year graduate student studying poetry in the Creative Writing MFA program, can’t wait to welcome the visiting authors and be inspired by their craft.
“Each time I attend these readings, I feel a renewed sense of purpose in my own work,” Sperry said. “Franny Choi and Kaveh Akbar are extraordinary poets and I’m so excited to learn from them.”
Sperry noted that the reading series has had a significant impact on her time so far here at CSU.
“It feels like a tremendous honor to be at an MFA program dedicated to bringing visiting poets and writers to our campus. It’s a reminder that the work of a writer lives as much in the present as it can in our studies of the past—maybe more,” Sperry said.
In addition to the reading, an informal gathering in the style of a literary salon will take place earlier Friday from 12-1 p.m. in Morgan Library Room 110A. During this event, community members are invited to pose questions related to the authors’ crafts, writing practices, publication experiences and more.
About the authors
Kaveh Akbar’s poems appear in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Paris Review, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. He is the author of two poetry collections: Pilgrim Bell (Graywolf 2021) and Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James 2017), in addition to a chapbook, Portrait of the Alcoholic (Sibling Rivalry 2016). He is also the editor of The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 100 Poets on the Divine (Penguin Classics 2022). In 2024, Knopf will publish Martyr!, Kaveh’s first novel.
Franny Choi is a queer, Korean American writer of poems, essays, and more. Her most recent book is The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On (HarperCollins, 2022), an NPR 2022 Books We Love and Goodreads Readers Choice Award Semifinalist. Her other books are Soft Science (Alice James Books, 2019), a Rumpus and Paris Review staff pick that Lit Hub praised as “a profoundly intelligent work which makes you feel.” It was a Nylon Best Book of 2019, was awarded the Elgin Award from the Science Fiction Poetry Association in 2020, and was a finalist for awards from Lambda Literary, Publishing Triangle, and the Massachusetts Center for the Book.
About the Creative Writing Reading Series
The CSU Creative Writing Reading Series is made possible by the Organization of Graduate Student Writers, the CSU Department of English, the College of Liberal Arts, the Lilla B. Morgan Memorial Endowment, the donor sponsor of the Crow-Tremblay Alumni Reading Series, the CSU Libraries and other generous support.
For more information about the series and this year’s lineup, visit the Creative Writing Reading Series website.
