Writers'
Workshop

For more than 25 years, Williston’s Writers’ Workshop Series has brought celebrated authors to campus to teach, share insights on the writing process, and inspire the next generation of writers. We’ve hosted screen writers, poets, editors, novelists, journalists, and memoirists, including multiple winners of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. For students in the Writers’ Workshop class, the trimester involves the study of a visiting author, culminating in a master class and community-wide reading. Read an article about the 20th anniversary of the Writers’ Workshop.

2024-25 Writers' Workshop Presenters

  • September 15: Emily Everett

    Emily Everett is an editor and writer from Northampton, Massachusetts. Her debut novel All That Life Can Afford is the Reese’s Book Club pick for April 2025. Everett grew up on her parents’ dairy farm in Williamsburg, studied English and music at Smith College, and earned a master’s in literature from Queen Mary University of London. She lived and worked in the United Kingdom from 2009-2013, before returning to the Valley. Her work has appeared in The New York Times’ “Modern Love” column, the Kenyon Review, Electric Literature, Tin House, and Mississippi Review. She is managing editor at The Common literary magazine in Amherst, and a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow in Fiction.

  • September 29: Joy Baglio

    Joy Baglio is a writer of speculative-literary fiction and the Founder and Director of Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshop. Her short stories appear widely in journals such as Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, The Iowa Review, American Short Fiction, Tin House, and forthcoming this year in One Story. Two of her short stories have recently been optioned for film. Joy has received fellowships from Yaddo, Ragdale, The Elizabeth George Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, Bread Loaf, Sewanee, and The Kerouac Project. She’s at work on two novels and a collection of short stories.

  • October 6: Marjan Kamali

    Marjan Kamali is an author and essayist living in Boston. Kamali experienced award-winning success with the publication of her book The Lion Women of Tehran, and has also published international bestseller The Stationery Shop and the Massachusetts Book Award finalist Together Tea. Her essays have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Literary Hub, and The Los Angeles Review. Marjan’s novels have been translated into more than 30 languages, and she is the 2022 recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of California, Berkeley, and master’s from Columbia University and New York University.

  • October 27: Carolyn Zaikowski

    Carolyn Zaikowski is the author of the experimental novel In a Dream, I Dance by Myself, and I Collapse (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2016) and the Poet Laureate of Easthampton, Massachusetts. Her fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared widely, in such publications as The Washington Post, Alaska Quarterly Review, Everyday Feminism, DIAGRAM, West Branch, and Denver Quarterly. She holds an master’s in creative writing from Naropa University, where she studied the role of literature in trauma healing, feminist resistance, and anti-fascist liberation. She currently works as a creative writing instructor and volunteer death doula and can be found at www.carolynzaikowski.com and carolynzzz.substack.com.

A Selection of Past Presenters

Colum McCann

Irish-born journalist and novelist Colum McCann discussed his National-Book-Award-winning novel Let the Great World Spin with classes, and made the case for reading’s being a gateway to empathy.

Anita Shreve

The late best-selling author of The Pilot’s Wife and The Weight of Water—a parent of two Williston graduates—Anita Shreve spoke to students about her stories that describe “life intensely felt.”

Jennifer duBois

Award-winning writer Jennifer duBois ’02 has twice led workshops at Williston, first with her acclaimed debut novel A Partial History of Lost Causes, and then for its follow-up, the “psychologically astute” Cartwheel.

Nic Stone

Nic Stone

New York Times best-selling author Nic Stone discussed her debut novel Dear Martin, whose protagonist opens a literary dialogue with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Her second novel is Odd One Out.

Mo Willems

Mo Willems P’19 told his Williston audience that he writes “incomprehensible books for illiterates,” which was his way of saying that the pigeon and other iconic characters he’s invented are co-created by his readers.

Colson Whitehead

Pulitzer Prize–winning author Colson Whitehead visited campus as a Writers’ Workshop presenter, following a school-wide read of his novel The Nickel Boys. In conversation with students, he spoke about the books that shaped him, the power of literature, and the importance of embracing one’s inner “weirdo.”

  • Past Visiting Writers by Year

    2024-25

    T Kira Madden
    Akil Kumarasamy
    Noor Hindi
    Elizabeth Mikesch

    2023-24

    Maggie Bailey
    Ousmane K. Power-Greene
    Anna Qu
    Elizabeth Acevedo

    2022-23

    Martín Espada
    Major Jackson
    Kelly Link
    Bianca Stone

    2021-22

    Rachel Cerrotti
    Ross Gay
    Colson Whitehead
    Chen Chen

    2019-20

    Debra Immergut
    Jim Shepard
    Manuel Gonzales
    April Bernard

    2018-19

    Dr. Roger Reeves
    Naomi Jackson
    Jen Acker
    Karen Shepard

    2017-18

    Madeleine Blais P’00, ’04
    Timothy Donnelly
    Colum McCann
    Nic Stone

    2016-17

    Steve Bloom
    Keri Smith
    Laura Tillman
    Andy Ward

    2015-16

    Ian Cheney
    John Katzenbach P’00, ’04
    David Maraniss
    Debra Monroe

    2014-15

    George Colt
    Jennifer duBois
    Anne Fadiman
    Joan Wickersham

    2013-14

    Elinor Lipman P’00
    Rebecca Makkai
    Patricia McCormick
    Mary Jo Salter

    2012-13

    Christopher Benfey
    Jennifer duBois ’02
    Anita Shreve
    Mo Willems

    2011-12

    Lynne Barrett
    Andre Dubus III
    Nikky Finney
    Alison Pace

    1998-2010

    Anita Shreve
    Anthony Giardin
    Arthur Golden
    Augusten Burroughs
    Bill Littlefield
    Bret Lott
    Cammie McGovern
    Cathleen Schine
    Chic Eglee
    Chris Bohjalian
    Curtis Sittenfeld
    Daniel Jones
    David Huddle
    David Stern
    Deborah Monroe
    Elinor Lipman
    Elizabeth Alexander
    Frederick Reiken
    Gregory Maguire
    Helen Fremont
    James Tate
    Jill McCorkle
    Joan Wickersham
    Jodi Picoult
    John Edgar Weideman
    John Katzenbach
    John Marks
    Jonathan Harr
    Joseph Ellis
    Joseph Nocera
    Kevin Sweeney
    Kurt Brown
    Laure-Anne Bosselaire
    Les Standiford
    Madeleine Blais
    Mameve Medwed
    Martín Espada
    Mary Jo Salter
    Meg Wolitzer
    Nora Raleigh Baskin
    Pam Houston
    Peter Smith
    Philip Caputo
    Richard Russo
    Robert Meeropol
    Roland Merullo
    Seabastian Stuart
    Stacy Schiff
    Sue Miller
    Susan Snively
    Suzanne Strempek Shea
    Thomas French
    Tom Perrotta
    Tracy Kidder
    Wally Lamb
    Wyn Cooper

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