Visiting Writers Series to feature ‘Laurel Review’ contributors Nov. 10

Northwest Missouri State University’s Visiting Writers Series will celebrate the release of the latest edition of “The Laurel Review“ with a night of readings by award-winning poets and fiction writers.

The Visiting Writers Series’ “Laurel Review Revue: A Virtual Launch Party” is 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 10. The event is free and open to the public.

“The Laurel Review” is a national literary magazine produced twice a year on the Northwest campus.

The launch party’s featured writers, all of whom have work appearing in the magazine’s latest edition, are:

• Whitney Collins, author of the short story collection “Big Bad,” which won the 2019 Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction. Read her story, “Rocks 4 Sale.”
• Jose Hernandez Diaz, a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow and author of “The Fire Eater” (Texas Review Press, 2020) as well as an educator and editor at Frontier and Palette Poetry in Los Angeles County. Read his poem, “El Cumpleanos.”
• Gary Jackson, the author of the poetry collections “Origin Story” (University of New Mexico Press, 2021) and “Missing You, Metropolis” (Graywolf Press, 2010), which received the Cave Canem Poetry Prize (2009). He is the co-editor of “The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry” (Blair Publishing, 2021), an associate professor at the College of Charleston and an associate poetry editor at Crazyhorse. Read his poems “Origin Story,” “Interview Featuring Boy in Wheelchair” and “Interview Featuring Gun & Three Daddies.”
• Aimee Parkison, the author of the “Refrigerated Music for a Gleaming Woman,” which won the FC2 Catherine Doctorow Innovative Fiction Prize, and a professor in the creative writing program at Oklahoma State University. Read her story, “Karens.”
• Dana Roeser, the author of four books, including “All Transparent Things Need Thundershirts” (Two Sylvias Press, 2019), “The Theme of Tonight’s Party Has Been Changed” (University of Massachusetts Press, 2014), “In the Truth Room” (Northeastern University Press/University Press of New England, 2008) and “Beautiful Motion” (Northeastern University Press, 2004). Read her poem, “The Fire Next Time.”
• John Sibley Williams, the author of six collections, including “The Drowning House” (Elixir Press Poetry Award), “As One Fire Consumes Another” (Orison Poetry Prize), “Skin Memory” (Backwaters Prize, University of Nebraska Press) and “Summon” (JuxtaProse Chapbook Prize). He is a 26-time Pushcart nominee, an editor of “The Inflectionist Review” and founder of the Caesura Poetry Workshop series. Read his poems, “Sky Burial” and “Coda.”

The Visiting Writers Series promotes creativity, diversity and freedom of expression. It is designed to further and enrich Northwest’s core educational mission.

Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Corporation, Green Tower Press, and the Department of Language, Literature and Writing sponsor the series.

For more information, contact Daniel Biegelson, a senior instructor of English, at dbiegel@nwmissouri.edu or 660.562.1266.