Culture
The English Department ramps up to the Spring Literary Fest with visit from poet Kimberly Johnson
By: Samantha Imperi
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) – Amidst a chilly start to the spring semester at OU, the English Department is preparing for an event to warm the soul.
On Thursday, the Creative Writing program will welcome poet, translator, and literary critic Kimberly Johnson, whose work has appeared in publications such as The New Yorker and Slate. Johnson will join us at 7:30 p.m. on January 29 at Galbreath Chapel (43 University Terrace) for a reading of her poetry and a brief Q&A with attendees.
While Johnson’s visit marks the end of the Creative Writing Program’s Visiting Writer Series for the 2025-26 academic year, the fun is far from over, as the Spring Literary Festival looms large on the horizon with an exciting slate of guests ready to wow us with their work.
The Spring Literary Festival is the signature event of the OU Creative Writing Program and has taken place on campus annually since 1986. In past years, attendance has included notable writers such as Jennifer Egan, Dianne Seuss, Frank Bidart, Terrance Hayes, Lidia Yuknavitch, Billy Collins, and Amy Hempel, among many others.
This year, we will be visited by novelist Jeff VanderMeer, memoirist Hala Alyan, and poet George Bilgere on March 25-26 for a series of six creative readings and lectures regarding the craft of writing.
Renowned writer of the New Weird, Jeff VanderMeer is the author of the NYT-bestselling Southern Reach trilogy, which has been translated into over 37 languages and given the Hollywood treatment with an adaptation of the first novel in the series, Annihilation, starring Natalie Portman. Over a 35-year career, VanderMeer has been a four-time World Fantasy Award winner and 20-time nominee, and his work has won the Nebula Award and Shirley Jackson Award. Recent works include Hummingbird Salamander, Bliss, and A Peculiar Peril, as well as Theo Ellsworth’s graphic novel adaptation of his short story, Secret Life.
Hala Alyan is a licensed clinical psychologist, professor at New York University, and writer of poetry and prose, fiction and nonfiction. She earned a BA from the American University of Beirut and an MA from Columbia University before completing her doctorate in clinical psychology from Rutgers University, where she specialized in trauma and addiction work with various populations. Her work grapples heroically with themes of family, displacement, belonging, and what ‘home’ means, and her most recent publication, her first memoir titled I’ll Tell You When I’m Home, has been praised repeatedly as one of the best books of 2025.
George Bilgere gained national recognition in 2002 when Billy Collins selected his poetry collection, The Good Kiss, for the University of Akron Poetry Prize. Other honors include the May Swenson Poetry Award, Society of Midland Authors Poetry Prize, Devins Award, Cleveland Arts Prize, and the 2023 Rattle Chapbook Prize. He is a Distinguished Professor of English at John Carroll University, and his work has appeared in publications such as Poetry, Kenyon Review, Best American Poetry, and others.
The English Department is thrilled to welcome Kimberly Johnson to campus this January and, in a couple of months, these three talented and accomplished Lit Fest guests, as the Visiting Writer Series and the Spring Literary Festival provide both student and community enrichment within a writing culture that is alive and thriving here in Athens. Make sure to mark your calendar now so you don’t miss out on any of these spectacular events, and visit the Spring Literary Festival webpage for more information about what to expect in March.