reading series
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...
Vanderbilt Reading Series welcomes novelist Rita Bullwinkel – December 4
Dec. 3, 2025—Thursday, December 4 Book-signing, 6:30 PM Reading, 7:00 PM Vanderbilt Special Collections Library 1101 19th Ave South Nashville, TN 37212 Rita Bullwinkel is the author of the novels Headshot (2024) and Belly Up (2018). Headshot was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and Gordon Burn Prize. It...
Marie-Helene Bertino joins Gertrude C. & Harold S. Vanderbilt Reading Series
Nov. 14, 2025—Novelist and short story writer Marie-Helene Bertino joined the Gertrude C. & Harold S. Vanderbilt Reading Series on November 6 with her novel Beautyland, an American Book Award winner and National Book Critics Circle finalist, which follows Adina Giorno, born with unusual perception to a single mother in Philadelphia. The arrival of a fax machine enables her...
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...
Fiction reading with Marie-Helene Bertino – Thursday, November 6
Oct. 28, 2025—Thursday, November 6 Book-signing: 6:30 PM Reading: 7:00 PM Special Collections Library 1101 19th Ave South, Nashville, TN 37212 At the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space carrying its famous golden record, a baby of unusual perception is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno is tiny and jaundiced, but...
Taylor Swift scholar to join Vanderbilt Reading Series – Thursday, October 30
Oct. 24, 2025—Harvard Professor Stephanie Burt will discuss the poetical & musical genius of Taylor Swift on Thursday, October 30 in the Special Collections Library at 7pm. The book signing will begin shortly before the reading at 6:30. Click to read the full press release [pdf]. Stephanie Burt is a poet, literary critic, and professor with nine...
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...
Technothriller: Film and the American Imagination – October 24
Oct. 3, 2025— Friday, October 17 12:00 – 2:00 PM Central Library 211 Technothriller: Film and the American Imagination a lecture by Soraya Murray Soraya Murray contemplates the pivotal figure of the Black technologist, also known as ‘Black tech,’ in technothriller films. This work is part of Murray’s forthcoming Technothriller: Film and the American Imagination (MIT, 2026),...