Princemere Writers Series
The Princemere Writers Series brings accomplished authors to campus for readings, author talks and receptions. The events are free and open to students, alumni and the public. Recent author visits have included:
- Abigail Carroll, poet and pastor
- Anna Friedrich, poet and arts pastor
- Jean Murray Walker, poet and playwright
- Karen Halvorsen Schreck, novelist and essayist
- Nora Kirkham, poet and author
Princemere 2026-27 Events
Wednesday, September 16, 2026
Scott Cairns
Chairs' Room, Ken Olsen Science Center
7:00 p.m. Reception
7:30-9:00 p.m. Reading & Book Signing
Librettist, essayist, translator, and author of twelve poetry collections, Scott Cairns was Curators’ Distinguished Professor of English at University of Missouri until leaving that position to serve as Director of the Low-Residency MFA Program at Seattle Pacific University. His work has appeared in Poetry, Image, Paris Review, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic. Recent books include Lacunae (2023), Anaphora (2019), Slow Pilgrim: The Collected Poems (2015), Idiot Psalms (2014), Short Trip to the Edge (spiritual memoir, 2016), Endless Life (adaptations of Christian mystics, 2014), and a book-length essay, The End of Suffering (2009). His current projects include Descent to the Heart, verse adaptations of Saint Isaak of Syria's writings, and a pilgrimage book focusing on Orthodox Christian enclaves in Ireland and Scotland, Holy Outpost: The Thin Place Where East Meets West. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2006, and the Denise Levertov Award in 2014.
Monday, November 9, 2026
Melissa Mack
Chairs' Room, Ken Olsen Science Center
7:00 p.m. Reception
7:30-9:00 p.m. Reading
Melissa Mack is a poet and essayist who incorporates social and natural history into lyric and hybrid-lyric poems and creative-critical essays. She teaches courses in creative writing, literature, and literary history. Her published work includes an award-winning full-length poetry collection, The Next Crystal Text, as well as poems and essays appearing in journals, anthologies, a chapbook, and ephemera. She has been the recipient of a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Award. She serves on the Board of Directors for the poetry and arts organization Small Press Traffic, and has been involved for more than a decade in organizing community-led experiments in collaborative study. A longtime resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, she is currently completing a PhD in Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in the Creative-Critical concentration and with a designated emphasis in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies.