From The Met to Whitman: Visiting Writers Series Welcomes Poet Robyn Schiff

Whitman College’s 2023–2024 Visiting Writers Reading Series (VWRS) continues this Thursday, Nov. 9, with award-winning poet Robyn Schiff. Open to the public, this event will take place at 7 p.m. at Kimball Theatre in Hunter Conservatory.

Schiff is an English and literature professor at the University of Chicago and is a director of their creative writing program. She is also an editor at Canarium Books, a small independent press focused on publishing poetry. 

Schiff has published four poetry collections at Penguin Random House including her most recent book, “Information Desk: An Epic” published in August 2023. The two-volume poem draws on Schiff’s experience fielding questions at the information desk at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a young writer. More about her time at The Met and how it defined her as a poet.

Schiff was also awarded a fellowship in 2023, a Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize at the American Academy in Rome.

The audience will have the opportunity to learn more about Schiff’s writing process and work. Students of any major are encouraged to attend the series.

“The Visiting Writers Reading Series has enabled me to see how writing guides these authors’ lives in unique, personal ways,” says Hanna Lynch, a senior Anthropology major. 

Lynch says the VWRS has prompted her to consider how writing has influenced her own life and how it translates into her creative endeavors. She hopes to see other creatives in attendance.

The 2023-2024 series features eight writers, including two Whitman alums, Zoe Ballering ’12 and Katey Schultz ’01. 

About Whitman’s Visiting Writers Reading Series

The Visiting Writers Reading Series brings established and emerging writers to share their work with the community. The Visiting Writers Reading Series is sponsored by the Department of English, the Office of the Provost and Dean of the Faculty, the Lawrence Parke Murphy and Robert Goldstein Trust, and by generous donations from the extended Whitman community.