Jeanette Winterson has said that the writer’s job is transformation. From Ovid to Anne Sexton to Karen Russell, the possibility of radical change, mined from fairy tales and psychological truths and real life, has created enduring art. Come hear five writers chart the transformations that seem otherworldly but that are in fact exactly what make us human.
Watershed Reading: Transformations
Krista Eastman’s essays have appeared in The Georgia Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Kenyon Review (KROnline), New Letters, Witness, and other journals. She held the Katey Lehman Fellowship in Creative Writing at The Pennsylvania State University and was a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellow. Her essays have received several awards and distinctions, including a “Notable Essay” citation in Best American Essays.
Nydia Rojas’ work has been published, in the Wisconsin Academy Review, International Poetry Review, Revista/ Review Interamericana, Palabra and in the anthology Between the Heart and the Land: Latina Poets in the Midwest. Most recently her work was published in Open Mic, Verse Wisconsin and Poetic Diversity. She is the author of the chapbook Stealing Daylight.
Originally from Birmingham, AL, Austin Segrest teaches poetry at Lawrence University in Appleton, WI. Door to Remain, his first poetry collection, won the 2021 Vassar Miller Prize.
Guy Thorvaldsen is a first generation Norwegian-American carpenter who grew up extremely curious about how the world is put together. His carpentry has appeared in in a myriad of different places. His second act was teaching community college English for 20 years, exploring how human beings understand themselves, learn how to communicate, bridge cultural gaps, and build community. The third act is tinkering and thinking in his workshop and at his desk, building poems, furniture, community and stories.
Guy’s poetry has appeared in Alligator Juniper, Forge, Gulfstream, Magma 69, Zone 3, Poet Lore, Sports Literate, Isthmus, and Verse Wisconsin. His poem “Sweeping” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and his first full-length book of poetry, Going to Miss Myself When I’m Gone came out in October 2017 through Aldrich Press.
Timothy Walsh’s poems and short stories have appeared in The North American Review, Arts & Letters, Cutthroat, The Midwest Quarterly, New Millennium Writings, and others. His awards include the Grand Prize in the Atlanta Review International Poetry Competition, the Kurt Vonnegut Fiction Prize from North American Review, and the Wisconsin Academy Fiction Prize. He is the author of a book of literary criticism, The Dark Matter of Words: Absence, Unknowing, and Emptiness in Literature (Southern Illinois University Press) and several poetry collections and chapbooks, most recently The Book of Arabella and When the World Was Rear-Wheel Drive.
PLAN YOUR VISIT
Arts + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston Street #100, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703.
Our galleries are normally open Tuesday through Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday noon to 5pm, and other programs take place throughout the week. Please check the events calendar and education section for details.