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.

2026-27 Writers' Workshop Presenters

  • September 21: Rachel Lyon

    Rachel Lyon is the author of Sixes, forthcoming from Zando in 2028; Fruit of the Dead, which was a finalist for the 2025 Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize; and Self-Portrait with Boy, a finalist for the Center for Fiction’s 2018 First Novel Prize. Rachel’s short work has appeared in One Story, The Rumpus, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. She has taught most recently at Bennington College and the American University of Paris, where she was the 2024 Paris Writer in Residence. Originally from Brooklyn, NY, she lives with her family in Western Massachusetts.

  • September 28: Jedediah Berry

    Jedediah Berry’s first novel, The Manual of Detection, was published by The Penguin Press in 2009. It won the 2009 Hammett Prize and the 2010 Crawford Award. It was a finalist for the 2010 Young Lions Fiction Award. Berry’s second novel, The Naming Song, was published by Tor Books in 2024. The book won the 2025 Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction and was a finalist for the 2024 Los Angeles Times Book Prize. The novel was shortlisted for the 2026 Grand prix de l’Imaginaire honoring the best speculative fiction published in France in 2025. Berry has taught at Bard College and MFA Program for Poets and Writers at University of Massachusetts Amherst.

  • October 19: Anna Hogeland

    Anna Hogeland is the author of the novel The Long Answer (Riverhead, 2022), which has been translated into seven languages, and the forthcoming novel Wild Aster (Bloomsbury, 2026). She is a psychotherapist in private practice, with a Master of Social Work from Smith College School for Social Work and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, Irvine. Her work has appeared in Electric Literature, Literary Hub, The Southern Review and received starred reviews in The New York Times, Sunday Times, Kirkus Review, Booklist Review. She lives in western Massachusetts.

  • October 26: January Gill O’Neil

    January Gill O’Neil is the author of four poetry collections published by CavanKerry Press: Glitter Road (2024), Rewilding (2018), Misery Islands (2014), and Underlife (2009). Glitter Road received the 2024 Poetry by the Sea Best Book Award and the Julia Ward Howe Prize and was a finalist for several honors, including the Massachusetts Book Award. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Poetry, The Nation, American Poetry Review, and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day series.

    A Cave Canem fellow, O’Neil is a professor at Salem State University and teaches graduate poetry writing in the summer program at Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English. She served as executive director of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival from 2012 to 2018 and was the 2019–2020 John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi.

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

    2026-26

    Emily Everett
    Joy Baglio
    Marjan Kamali
    Carolyn Zaikowski

    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

Want to learn more about Williston?

Just fill out the short form below and we’ll get you started.