reading series
Poet Elise Paschen joins Vanderbilt Reading Series – October 8
Sep. 24, 2026—Poet Elise Paschen will join the 2026-2027 Gertrude C. & Harold S. Vanderbilt Reading Series on October 8. The evening will begin with a literary salon at 6:30 PM, followed by a public reading 7:00 and a book-signing at 8:00. Thursday, October 8 Vanderbilt Special Collections Library, 1101 19th Avenue South, Nashville Elise Paschen is...
Novelist Peter Orner joins Vanderbilt Reading Series – September 24
Sep. 14, 2026—Acclaimed novelist Peter Orner will join the 2026-2027 Gertrude C. & Harold S. Vanderbilt Reading Series on September 24. The evening will begin with a literary salon at 6:30 PM, followed by a public reading 7:00 and a book-signing at 8:00. Thursday, September 24 Vanderbilt Special Collections Library, 1101 19th Avenue South, Nashville Peter Orner...
Gertrude C. & Harold S. Vanderbilt Reading Series kicks off September 10 with U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey
Aug. 27, 2026—Former U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winner Natasha Trethewey will kick off the 2026-2027 Gertrude C. & Harold S. Vanderbilt Reading Series on September 10. The evening will begin with a literary salon at 6:30 PM, followed by a public reading 7:00 and a book-signing at 8:00. Thursday, September 10 Vanderbilt Special Collections Library, 1101 19th...
Melissa Range to join Vanderbilt Reading Series – April 16
Apr. 9, 2026—VU Literary Prize Winner Melissa Range will join the Vanderbilt Reading Series, after publishing her new collection of poems, Printer’s Fist, with Vanderbilt University Press in April 2026. The Reading Series and The Press will co-host the event. Thursday, April 16 Alumni Hall 202 – 23rd Ave N, Nashville, TN 6:00 Literary Salon & Reception...
Lecturer Jordan Ivie to present in department Works in Progress Series – April 8
Mar. 5, 2026—Wednesday, April 8 4:10 – 5:00 PM Divinity 127 “A sonne be gotten, not begotten:” Birth, Succession, and the Transformation of Motherhood in the 1596 Faerie Queene” Jordan Ivie This presentation is part of the Department of English Works in Progress Series with support from...
MFA alums Max McDonough and Kiyoko Reidy to join reading series – April 2
Mar. 5, 2026—Thursday, April 2 6:30 PM Literary Salon 7:00 PM Reading 8:00 PM Book Signing Vanderbilt Special Collections Library 1101 19th Ave South Nashville, TN 37212 Max McDonough’s debut poetry collection, Python with a Dog Inside It, won the St. Lawrence Book Award from Black Lawrence Press. His...
Shelby Johnson to deliver Drake Lecture – March 20
Mar. 3, 2026—Friday, March 20 10:00 – 11:00 AM Divinity 127 “Dreaming Sacagawea” Across the thousands of pages that comprise the eighteen modern volumes of Lewis and Clark’s journals (1803-1806), Sacagawea appears in just a hundred passages. Although she may be the most documented Indigenous woman of the early 19th century, few of these entries referred to...
Keegan C. Finberg to deliver Drake Lecture – February 27
Feb. 27, 2026—Friday, February 27 2:00 – 3:00 PM Divinity 127 “Reproduction and Generality: Feminist Diets in Poetry by Bernadette Mayer, Adrian Piper and Eleanor Antin” This talk will examine feminist performance art and poetry that experiments with food intake to consider effects of the political economic welfare conditions of the 1970s. Speaking directly to the tightening...
Lecturer Payam Rahmati to present in department Works in Progress Series – February 25
Feb. 16, 2026—Wednesday, February 25 4:10 – 5:00 PM Divinity 127 An Inquiry into Grammarly’s Precision and Recall: A Comparative Study with Human Annotators Payam Rahmati This presentation is part of the Department of English Works in Progress Series with support from the John W. Poindexter Fund.
Poet Prageeta Sharma to join Vanderbilt Reading Series – February 19
Jan. 28, 2026—Thursday, February 19 Book-signing, 6:30 PM Reading, 7:00 PM Vanderbilt Special Collections Library 1101 19th Ave South Nashville, TN 37212 Prageeta Sharma is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently, Onement Won (Wave Books, 2025) and Grief Sequence (Wave Books, 2019). Her honors and awards include a 2025 NEA Creative...