Literary Arts
The English Department annually sponsors and co-sponsors significant contemporary writers and scholars, often winners of Pulitzer Prizes, MacArthur "genius grants," National Book Awards and various other honors.
All writers brought to campus work with students personally; all public presentations are free. For more information, please email Kathy Barton at kabarton@davidson.edu or call 704-894-2254.
All events are free and open to the public. Attendees must comply with college COVID policies.
Spring 2024 Literary Events Calendar
Sponsors of these events include: The Batten Professorship, DACE, McGee Professorship, the BACCA Foundation Visiting Scholar and Artist Program and the academic departments of Africana Studies, Art, English, Digital Studies, Gender Studies and Humanities.
Fiction Writer Karen Russell Connaroe Lecture February 26
Location: Tyler Tallman Auditorium, Sloan Music Building
Time: 7:30 p.m.
MacArthur Fellow Karen Russel's Swamplandia! (2011) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and one of The New York Times' Ten Best Books of 2011. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, and a former fellow of the American Academy in Berlin.
Rone Shavers McGee Professor Rone Shavers February 29
Location: Katherine and Tom Belk Visual Arts Center
Time: 7 p.m.
McGee Professor Rone Shavers's works include the Afrofuturist novel Silverfish, which was named one of the Best Fiction Books of 2020 by The Brooklyn Rail. He teaches in the University of Utah's Ph.D. program in creative writing.
Gabrielle Bell A Staged Reading of Her Cartoons March 18
Location: Hance Auditorium, Chambers Building
Time: 7 p.m.
With the cartoonist directing, student performers will voice cartoons of Gabrielle Bell, from her collection, Voyeurism. This will be the opening night of Bell’s one-week residency, sponsored by the Bacca Foundation Visiting Artist/Scholar Program, and cosponsored by the departments of Art, Digital Studies, English, GSS, and Humanities.
Gabrielle Bell Cartoonist Gabrielle Bell March 21
Location: Lilly Family Gallery, Chambers Building
Time: 7 p.m.
Cartoonist Gabrielle Bell's first full-length graphic memoir, Everything is Flammable, was named one of the best graphic novels of 2017 by Entertainment Weekly, Paste Magazine, and Publisher's Weekly. She has been honored with eight selections in Best American Comics.
Writer and Artist John Keene Literary Gala & Awards April 3
Location: 900 Room, Knobloch Campus Center
Time: 7:30 p.m.
2018 MacArthur Fellow John Keene is a writer, translator, professor, and artist. He is the author or co-author of half a dozen books, including Annotations and Counternarratives. His collection Punks won the 2022 National Book Award in Poetry. Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University-Newark, he chairs the Africana Studies Department and also teaches in the English Department and MFA Program in Creative Writing.
Past Presenters
![NC Poet Laureate, Jaki Shelton Green stands at podium holding her book, and reading poems into the microphone](/sites/default/files/styles/small_4x3/public/2019-01/NCPoetLaureateJakiSheltonGreen_01.JPG.jpg?itok=iTydJ9LE)
Jackie Shelton Green
![Clint Smith](/sites/default/files/styles/small_4x3/public/2020-04/CSmith.JPG.jpg?itok=qf07I9mM)
Clint Smith
![Margaret Atwood](/sites/default/files/styles/small_4x3/public/2022-07/Screen%20Shot%202022-07-29%20at%201.59.49%20PM.png.jpg?itok=9tzy_MbF)
Margaret Atwood
![Don Delillo](/sites/default/files/styles/small_4x3/public/2022-07/Screen%20Shot%202022-07-29%20at%202.01.54%20PM.png.jpg?itok=SiJn3oOU)
Don Delillo
![Claudia Rankine](/sites/default/files/styles/small_4x3/public/2022-07/Screen%20Shot%202022-07-29%20at%202.02.16%20PM.png.jpg?itok=0PYP7cGO)
Claudia Rankine
![Salman Rushdie](/sites/default/files/styles/small_4x3/public/2022-07/Screen%20Shot%202022-07-29%20at%202.02.49%20PM.png.jpg?itok=vTu_6zr9)
Salman Rushdie