Award Winning Poet Visits Whitman to Inspire Student Creativity
Whitman College welcomes poet Sara Nicholson as the first guest speaker for the 2023–2024 Visiting Writers Reading Series.
By Zoe Perkins ’25 and Mónica Hernández Williams
Whitman College’s 2023–2024 Visiting Writers Reading Series (VWRS) is kicking off by hosting Sara Nicholson, Ph.D., an award-winning poet. Students who attend will gain a deeper understanding of the written craft and learn more about Nicholson’s work.
Nicholson is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Boise State University and has published three books of poetry including her most recent titled “April” which was released in the spring of 2023. Nicholson’s “The Living Method” (2014) won the Poetry Society of America’s New American Poets prize.
“Her books are quiet and brilliant,” says Katrina Roberts, the Director of the VWRS and the Mina Schwabacher Professor of English/Creative Writing and Humanities at Whitman. “I felt compelled to reach out to her, to read her work widely, and to share her poems in all my classes.”
Roberts hopes her students are inspired to attend the event saying “It is such a gift of opportunity to have the chance to interact with writers one is reading.” Nicholson will speak at the Kimball Theater in Hunter Conservatory at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023.
Sophomore Pan Deines is excited to meet Nicholson and encourages others to also take advantage of the Visiting Writers Reading Series at Whitman.
“I've tried to go to as many events as I can because it's always fun to hear poets read their work the way they intended it to be read,” says Deines, who intends to major in English and minor in Creative Writing. “It's also fun to meet other students with an interest in writing. Sometimes I bring a friend along, and we can share the experience and chat about our favorite parts on the walk back home!”
In total, eight published authors will be featured in the 2023–2024 series including Whitman alums Zoe Ballering ’12 and Katey Schultz ’01. The VWRS is sponsored by the college’s Department of English, the Office of the Provost and Dean of the Faculty, the Lawrence Parke Murphy and Robert Goldstein Trust, and individual donors.