UC’s fall Visiting Writers Series offers a wide range of poets, writers, agents
English department hosts diverse voices shaping the literacy landscape of today
The University of Cincinnati’s (UC) Fall 2025 writers series returns with an inspiring lineup of authors spanning poetry, nonfiction, fiction and more. This series has a long legacy, dating back to over 70 years of bringing writers to campus.
“We’ve been hosting writers for over 70 years at UC,” said Jennifer Habel, UC’s coordinator of creative writing in the College of Arts and Sciences, adding that past visitors have included Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners. “It’s a very well-storied series.”
While the series mostly features poets and fiction writers, thanks to endowments in those genres, organizers and the committee have expanded to offer more talks on topics such as the author-agent relationship. “We continue to bring in tons of poets and fiction writers to read,” Habel said. “But we’ve also moved into sometimes offering more talks…that’s been a newer aspect of the series.”
Writers are chosen by a committee that meets twice a year, with a focus on diversity of experience, identity and style. “We invite writers who are relatively young, who have just published one or two books, and then we invite writers who have published 15 books, "Habel explained. “We really try to represent a broad range of the kind of writing that is out there.”
Here's a rundown of the fall line-up, which starts in September. All events will be held in the Langsam Poetry Room, 646 Langsam Library and are free and open to the public.
Marianne Chan, poet and author
Fiction reading, Sept. 18, 5:30 p.m.
Poet and author Marianne Chan. Photo/Provided
Marianne Chan grew up in Stuttgart, Germany, and Lansing, Michigan. She is the author of All Heathens (Sarabande Books, 2020), which was the winner of the 2021 GLCA New Writers Award, and Leaving Biddle City (Sarabande Books, 2024). Her poems have appeared in Poetry, Best American Poetry, New England Review, Kenyon Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. She is an assistant professor of creative writing at Old Dominion University and teaches poetry in the Warren Wilson College MFA program for Writers.
Emma Hudelson, nonfiction writer
Nonfiction reading, Sept. 18, 6 p.m.
Nonfiction writer Emma Hudelson. Photo/Provided
Emma Hudelson is a nonfiction writer from Indiana, where she directs the Writing for Wellness program at Butler University. Sky Watch: Chasing an American Saddlebred Story (University Press of Kentucky, 2024) is her first book. Emma holds a PhD in creative writing from the University of Cincinnati. She has one daughter, one husband, three dogs, one cat, and one horse.
Maggie Su, fiction writer and poet
Poetry reading, Sept. 18, 6:30 p.m.
Fiction writer and poet Maggie Su. Photo/Provided
Maggie Su is the author of the novel Blob: A Love Story (Harper, 2025). She holds a PhD in fiction from University of Cincinnati and an MFA from Indiana University. Her short fiction has appeared in New England Review, DIAGRAM, TriQuarterly Review, and elsewhere. She lives in South Bend, Indiana, with her partner, daughter, cat, and turtle.
Edgar Garcia, poet and scholar
Poetry reading, Sept. 24, 5:30 p.m.
Poet and scholar Edgar Garcia. Photo/Provided
Edgar Garcia is a poet and scholar of the hemispheric cultures of the Americas. He is the author of Skins of Columbus: A Dream Ethnography (Fence Books, 2019); Signs of the Americas: A Poetics of Pictography, Hieroglyphs, and Khipu (University of Chicago Press, 2020); Infinite Regress (collaborative work with Eamon Ore-Giron, Bom Dia Books, 2021); and Emergency: Reading the Popol Vuh in a Time of Crisis (University of Chicago Press, 2022). His collection of adaptations and translations of mid-sixteenth century Nahuatl-language songs, Cantares, is forthcoming from Wesleyan University Press in 2026; and a book about the baroque titled Caravaggio’s Americas is also in final stages of completion. Most recently he has been collaborating with the American Modern Opera Company on adaptations of these writings, which have performed at the Clark Art Institute, Peabody Essex Museum, and Lincoln Center. He is faculty in the departments of English and Creative Writing at the University of Chicago.
Nathan Hill, author
Fiction reading, Oct. 23, 5:30 p.m.
Fiction writer Nathan Hill. Photo/Provided
Nathan Hill’s best-selling debut novel, The Nix, was named the #1 book of the year by Audible and Entertainment Weekly, and one of the year’s best books by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Slate, and many others. It was the winner of the Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction from the Los Angeles Times, and was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for Best Debut. Nathan’s second novel, Wellness, was also a New York Times bestseller and was picked by Oprah Winfrey for her book club. It was selected as one of the best books of the year by NPR, Amazon, Audible, The Times, and others. His books have been published worldwide in more than two dozen languages. In France, Wellness was the winner of the prestigious Grand Prix of American Literature, as well as the Book of the Year prize from the Deauville Film Festival.
Emily Forland, Literary Agent
Conversation on The Writer and the Agent with Emily Forland and Nathan Hill, Oct. 24, 3:30 p.m.
Emily Forland has been an agent at Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents in NYC for over ten years; previously, she was an agent at The Wendy Weil Agency. She represents a wide variety of literary fiction and narrative nonfiction, including prize winners and book club picks, and has a special place in her heart for distinctive writing that jumps off the page.
Jimin Seo, author and poet
Poetry reading, Nov. 6, 5:30 p.m.
Jimin Seo was born in Seoul, Korea and immigrated to the US to join his family at the age of eight. He is the author of OSSIA, winner of The Changes Book Prize, and the forthcoming chapbook A-1982. He is the recipient of Poetry Society of America's Norma Farber First Book Award, selected by Phillip B. Williams. His poems can be found in Action Fokus, The Canary, LitHub, Chicago Review, mercury firs, and The Bronx Museum. His most recent projects were Poems of Consumption with H Sinno at the Barbican Centre in London, and a site activation for salazarsequeromedina's Open Pavilion at the 4th Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism.
Featured image at top: Attendees at an event of UC's Visiting Writers Series. Photo/Provided
By Denise Meads
Student Journalist, College of Arts and Sciences Marketing and Communication
artscinews@uc.edu
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