faculty
Creative Writing program hosts poets Didi Jackson and Patrick Paridee Samuel
Dec. 4, 2025—Vanderbilt’s Creative Writing Program hosted a salon on November 13 with assistant professor Didi Jackson and fellow poet Patrick Sharidee Samuel. They discussed their recent collections, My Infinity and And Another Thing. Following the salon, graduate and undergraduate students participated in a book-making workshop and produced their own work. For upcoming events, visit the...
2025 Creative Writing newsletter now available
Nov. 13, 2025—The newsletter can be viewed by clicking here. The PDF version can be found here.
Poet and anthropologist Nomi Stone features as H. S. Vanderbilt speaker – November 14
Nov. 3, 2025—Friday, November 14th 12:30 – 2:30 PM Kissam C216 Lunch will be provided, and a selection of Nomi Stone’s book will be available for attendees. Nomi Stone is an award-winning poet and anthropologist. She is the author of two full-length poetry collections, Stranger’s Notebook (TriQuarterly 2008) and Kill Class (Tupelo 2019), which was a finalist...
Amy Quan Barry joins Gertrude C. & Harold S. Vanderbilt Reading Series
Oct. 31, 2025—Novelist and poet Amy Quan Barry joined the Gertrude C. & Harold S. Vanderbilt Reading Series on October 16 with her new novel The Unveiling, which chronicles the struggles of Striker, a Black film scout, who, along with a group of wealthy white tourists, becomes stranded on a remote island in the Antarctic Peninsula during a...
Alex Dubilet publishes “Political Theology Reimagined”
Oct. 7, 2025—The contributors demonstrate that political theology is a powerful resource by which to both recognize and challenge the modalities of politics and social life that are practiced in our own time. The reimagination that the title points to is not so much a way to start political theology all over again but to focus on...
Victoria Chang joins the Gertrude C. & Harold S. Vanderbilt Reading Series
Oct. 7, 2025—Poet Victoria Chang joined the Gertrude C. & Harold S. Vanderbilt Reading Series on October 2 with her collection With My Back Against the World, which NPR called “poems of remarkable vividness and depth . . . engaging in a constant celebration of life in terms of its inexorable passing, a feast of grief in...
Assistant Professor Didi Jackson Wins 2025 Tennessee Book Award for Poetry
Sep. 25, 2025—On September 8, Humanities Tennessee announced Assistant Professor Didi Jackson as the Winner of the 2025 Tennessee Book Award for Poetry. Jackson’s work has been described as “A remarkable book, not only for the phenomenal texture and musicality of its language, but equally for its stunning imagery and metaphorical constructs.” Read more here.
Jared Harvey’s new novel available now
Sep. 24, 2025—Lecturer Jared Harvey‘s latest novel is now available from Asterism Books. Soft Lighting is written almost exclusively in the first-person singular and plural, and stages a motley of narrators (or only one) who respond to one another or who do not, and if not, I wonder whether desire for interpersonal connection withers, or excruciates. There is no...
Lydi Conklin joins the Gertrude C. & Harold S. Vanderbilt Reading Series
Sep. 19, 2025—Assistant Professor Lydi Conklin joined the Gertrude C. & Harold S. Vanderbilt Reading Series on September 4 to share their new novel Songs of No Provenance. In addition to reading from the work, which the Chicago Review of Books called “a great American music novel . . . a lush, wild story, textured with sensory and technical descriptions...
Vanderbilt MFA students featured in Cheekwood Exhibit
Sep. 16, 2025— MFA faculty, students, and alumni are currently featured in the exhibition Verse & Visions at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens. Visit Cheekwood and read the ekphrastic poems of Sydney Mayes, Carson Colenbaugh (MFA ’25), Ajla Dizdarevic, and Assistant Professor Didi Jackson. Verse and Vision,...