“Everyone’s driving around with the biggest gun they can find, mowing down anyone who seems remotely threatening,” she said. “Everyone’s fighting tooth and nail in this really brutal way.”

Speaking at a Writers Read event in Martin Chapel on Thursday evening, Benner Dixon said she’s not particularly interested in those types of stories. She would rather learn how people get past that point. 

“I don’t want post-apocalyptic,” she said. “I want what comes after. I want to see the communities that thrive once all the warring and stabbing has burned itself out.”

The Height of Land is set in the far distant future and follows Red, a sensitive and inquisitive young farmer who is torn between “spiritual longing and commitment to his community’s survival in a harsh landscape” (). Benner Dixon read from a chapter in her novel, shared a short story she had written about encountering God in her garden, and read an essay that will be published by The Iowa Review in its spring issue.

Answering questions from moderator Dr. Kevin Seidel, professor of English at EMU, and members of the audience, Benner Dixon spoke about beauty in art and gardening, the meaning behind the title of her novel—the dividing line that separates watersheds—and the inspiration that sparked it all. She said she had read a book by religious scholar Reza Aslan, who wrote God: A Human History.

“I started wondering, what would it be like if modern humanity was able to have the slate wiped clean, as it were, of all the religious knowledge we have and create a new religion,” she said. “What would we create?”

Future events

A book launch and “post-post-apocalyptic party” held on Saturday, March 22, from 1 to 4 p.m. at Tangly Woods Farmstead (2715 Fruit Farm Lane, Keezletown, Virginia) will feature a reading from Benner Dixon, an open mic, and demonstrations from local artisans and craftspeople. Read more details about that .

The next Writers Read event, on Tuesday, April 22, at 7:30 p.m. in Martin Chapel, will feature EMU English Professor Kirsten Beachy introducing her memoir of collected essays, Martyrs and Chickens, Confessions of a Granola Mennonite.

About the author

is a teacher, poet, editor, and novelist living in Pittsburgh. She spent roughly 15 years in academia as a classroom teacher and scholar before launching her freelance editing and writing business. Along with poet Sharon Fagan McDermott, she is the co-author of Millions of Suns: On Writing and Life. Her writing has appeared in outlets such as Literary Hub, Reckoning, Flash Fiction, Online, Appalachian Review, and elsewhere.

For Mennonite-raised Nightbitch author Rachel Yoder, what excites her most about speaking at EMU is learning how Mennonites will react to her book. “Will they be offended? Will they relate? Will they see it as productive or worthless?” — all questions she’s pondered in an email to EMU News.

“Now that I’m more outside the Mennonite tradition than in, it feels important to me to remain in conversation with the community regardless, not only as a means to understand the tradition better, but as a means to understand my own story, why I make art, why I have to write things that are ‘dark’ or ‘evil’ or ‘unpleasant,’” said Yoder, who will present at EMU’s Writers Read Author Series on Friday, Feb. 28.

Yoder grew up in a Mennonite community in the Appalachian foothills of eastern Ohio before studying English literature as an undergraduate student at Georgetown University. She is a graduate of the Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program and holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Arizona. Currently, she serves as assistant professor of screenwriting and cinema arts at the University of Iowa. 

Her debut novel Nightbitch, published in 2021, is a “strange and unforgettable story about a sleep-deprived stay-at-home mother who, after apparently growing extra nipples, sharper canine teeth and a tail, develops an ‘exhilarating and magical’ ability to literally become a powerful bitch. ()

“It became a cult hit, was named one of the best books of the year by Esquire, got shortlisted for a PEN/Hemingway award — and has now been made into a film starring Amy Adams and directed by Marielle Heller.”

EMU Professor Kevin Seidel said the Language and Literature Department tends to invite authors for its Writers Read series who have some connection to the Mennonite tradition or who can “help us see past the edges of that tradition.” Yoder, he said, meets both of those conditions.

Seidel credited fellow EMU English Professor Kirsten Beachy with introducing him to Nightbitch a couple years ago. 

“She handed me the book with a smile that, looking back, probably meant I dare you to read this,” he recalled. “The first paragraph was so brilliant, so affectionately self-deprecating, and so off-kilter funny that I had to read the rest.” 

An evening of powerful poetry performed by jessica Care moore and Brad Walrond will kick off EMU’s Writers Read Author series this month.

Verses & Vibes, an event featuring the pair of poets, authors and recording artists, will begin at 7 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 23, at the Common Grounds space in EMU’s University Commons. The event is free to attend and open to the public.

Following their poetry performances, moore and Walrond will lead a Q&A session and participate in a book signing (copies of their books will be available to purchase).

(who stylizes her first and last names in lowercase) is an internationally renowned poet, playwright, performance artist and producer. She is the founder of book publishing company , founder and producer of , and founder of The Moore Art House, a nonprofit dedicated to improving literacy in Detroit.

In April she was the poet laureate of Detroit. She is the third poet laureate to serve the city since 1981.

moore has performed on stages all over the world, including the Apollo Theater, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the London Institute for Contemporary Arts. She, along with Walrond, will perform at the Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University this month.

She is the author of The Words Don’t Fit in My Mouth, The Alphabet Verses the Ghetto, and Sunlight Through Bullet Holes. The poems in her latest collection, We Want Our Bodies Back, speak to “Black women’s creative and intellectual power, and express the pain, sadness, and anger of those who suffer constant scrutiny because of their gender and race” (, 2020).

moore is a two-time Knight Arts recipient, 2018 Joyce Award winner, 2016 Kresge Artist Fellow, 2013 Alain Locke Award recipient, and the 2015 NAACP Great Expectations Award recipient.

is a poet, author, conceptual/performance artist, and one of the foremost writers and performers of the 1990s Black Arts Movement centered in New York City. His poems have been published in The Atlantic, African Voices Magazine, Moko Magazine, ArtsEverywhere, Eleven Eleven, and Wordpeace. His latest collection of poems, Every Where Alien, “traces blackness, queerness, and desire through the legacy of 1990s and early 2000s New York City underground art movements, illuminating how their roots and undertold histories inspire today’s culture” (, 2024).

Copies of moore’s and Walrond’s are available to check out at EMU’s Sadie Hartzler Library.

The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion partnered with Writers Read, the Office of Student Life, and the Center for Interfaith Engagement to bring this event to life. 

Dawn Neil, coordinator for the Office of DEI, said she had seen moore perform her poetry at the White Privilege Conference in Tulsa this past April.

“Listening to her, the raw power and emotion in her voice gave me chills,” Neil said. “Bringing her here feels essential. Her message needs to be heard, and I believe it’s one that our students will deeply connect with.”

Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, author of My Monticello (2021), will read from her collection of short stories and field questions at EMU’s Writers Read program on Tuesday, March 19. 

A finalist for the prestigious Kirkus Prize for Fiction, My Monticello appeared on many “Best of” lists, including The New York Times’ “” and Time’s “.” One of its short stories, “Control Negro,” was anthologized in The Best American Short Stories 2018, guest edited by Roxane Gay and read live by LeVar Burton. 

Its title story, “My Monticello,” is set in an apocalyptic near-future Charlottesville, Virginia, which is overrun by a white, racist militia. Da’Naisha, a young Black descendant of Sally Hemmings and Thomas Jefferson, leads her neighbors to take refuge in the historic, abandoned plantation house of her ancestors. 

In a for The Washington Post, Anissa Gray writes that My Monticello â€œis, quite simply, an extraordinary debut from a gifted writer with an unflinching view of history and what may come of it.” Johnson, an alumna of James Madison University, worked as a public school art teacher for 20 years. She lives in Charlottesville as a full-time writer.

The next morning, Johnson will speak at Convocation on Wednesday, March 20, at 10:10 a.m. at Common Grounds Coffeehouse. A book signing will follow both events, which are free and open to the public.

The events are presented by EMU Language and Literature with the EMU Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Clark has described his own work as “appropriate for any reader of contemporary poetry, but particularly for readers of Southern poetry, readers interested in the intersection of poetry and theology and readers attracted to formal invention in lyric verse.”

His manuscript Reveille won the , which included publication and $5,000 in prize money, one of the largest monetary remunerations among poetry contests.

, available through the University of Arkansas Press, is described as “theologically playful, rhetorically sophisticated, and formally ambitious […] rooted in awe and driven by the impulse to praise.”

“David Clark’s bold and incisive verse startles us into examining and subsequently rejoicing in the ordinary details of our everyday lives,” said Marti Eads, professor of language and literature.

Born in Savannah and raised in Chattanooga and Little Rock, Clark earned his bachelor’s degree at Union University, an MFA at University of Virginia, and a PhD in English at Texas Tech University. He is visiting assistant professor of literature and interdisciplinary honors at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana, where he held a postdoctoral fellowship from 2012-2014.

Clark has also published in the Alaska Quarterly Review, The Believer, Blackbird, Southwest Review, Yale Review as well as in a variety of anthologies and special series. His other honors include the Olive B. O’Connor Fellowship in Poetry at Colgate University, the Guy Owen Prize of the Southern Poetry Review, the 30 Below Prize of Narrative Magazine, and a Tennessee Williams Scholarship from the Sewanee Writer’s Conference. He has served on the staffs of Meridian, Virginia Quarterly Review, Iron Horse Literary Magazine, and the Best New PoetsĚý˛š˛ÔłŮłó´Çąô´Ç˛ľ˛â.

Since 2011, he has served as editor-in-chief and executive director of the biannual journal , which is distributed to subscribers in more than 20 countries. In 2013, the journal began publishing bi-weekly prose features online. A partnership with teachers of creative writing links editors and students with current published works, and invites student contributions on the .

Sizemore will read from his work Thursday, March 12 at 6:30 p.m. in Common Grounds Coffeehouse on the ˛ÝÝŽÉçÇř campus.

Sizemore himself was raised in the home of a fundamentalist Baptist preacher, where the King James Bible was he says in one interview. He graduated from Liberty Baptist Theological School, and earned an MFA from Seattle Pacific University in 2009. He teaches at Central Virginia Community College.

His short fiction has been published or is forthcoming in StoryQuarterly, Southern Humanities Review, Connecticut Review, Blue Mesa Review, ł§´ÇłÜ’wąđ˛őłŮąđ°ů, and elsewhere.  Excerpts from his novel The Calling are published or forthcoming in Connecticut Review, Portland Review, Prick of the Spindle, Burrow Press Review, Relief, Rock & Sling, and Pithead Chapel.

Sizemore brings to his writing a “sharp sense of observation, of being able to see right into something to make it close,” says assistant professor of English Chad Gusler, who got to know Sizemore when both were at a summer MFA residency in New Mexico. “His characters are thrust into action immediately, and the places where his characters live out their lives are palpable and real. There’s a persistent pulse in his stories, a sneaky beat that sinks into a reader’s subconscious lingers there for quite some time.”

Sizemore’s fiction has won the New Millennium Writings Award. In recognition of the edginess of his writing and its appeal to today’s youth, Sizemore’s work was nominated to “Best American Nonrequired Reading,” an annual anthology of fiction and nonfiction works selected by a panel of high school readers.

His work has also been nominated for the prestigious . Nominations are limited to six entries per year from little magazine and small press editors, or from contributing editors to Pushcart Press, according to the prize’s website.

Sizemore has been a frequent contributor to on the evangelical channel of Patheos.com, where he has blogged about a myriad of topics, as related to Christian faith: food deserts, the World Cup, the movie “Noah,” the Ken Ham-Bill Nye debate at nearby Liberty University, and parenting three children.

Bauerlein, a professor of English at Emory University, is author of The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes our Future (or Don’t Trust Anyone under 30).

The controversial claim of the title may have attracted the full house, or it may have been the theme’s popularity in campus and class discussions this year: EMU’s Common Read is The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, by Nicholas Carr.

Whatever the reason, the Feb. 5 talk was the most popular Writers Read event in recent history, according to , chair of the who invited Bauerlein to campus.

Attendees ranged from undergrads to EMU and James Madison University faculty to community members, and the post-lecture discussion, in which Bauerlein fielded questions from among the diverse audience, was brought to a close, Medley said, in the midst of continued debate.

Bauerlein painted a world where young people today are sucked into time-consuming superficial social interactions with members of their peer group – mediated by text messenging, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and other digital forms of communicating – rather than with older people who can provide more thoughtful interactions and deepen them intellectually.

As additional fodder for thought, Bauerlein pointed to the proliferation of teen-centered TV shows, rather than ones centering on adult interactions, as he recalled seeing during his youthful era in the 1960s.

He cited statistics of young people exchanging 3,500 text messages per month and accessing nine hours of media per day. Given that they only have six hours of leisure time daily, they are obviously accessing more than one form of media simultaneously, he said.

This led Bauerlein to ponder the importance of maintaining the study of the humanities in colleges and universities, guided by teachers who “lead students into a more educated, deeper experience” of objects truly worthy of their thoughtful, focused attention. Those objects may be works of art or music or literature, but all require quiet time to digest, time that today’s young people often don’t have and wouldn’t know what to do with, he said.

Young peoples’ habits of speedy consumption of information in a shallow manner “is a deep threat to the humanities,” he said.

He objected to multi-tasking when studying a subject: “The attention has to be complete; you have to clear out all other distractions.” If young people would learn to quietly focus, he said, they will flourish as human beings.

, associate dean of students/director of housing and residence life, and , associate professor of , gave prepared responses to Bauerlein’s talk, offering additional examples from their personal and work contexts of the validity of his observations.

James Ward, a professor of religion at James Madison University who has also taught at EMU, commented during the question-and answer-period that his students spend so much time staring without expression into their devices that he feels they have developed a blank facial affect when he searches their faces for responses to the material he has presented in class.

Several members of the audience questioned some aspects of Bauerlein’s talk. One, who identified herself as a writing teacher, pointed out that immersion in digital gaming for hours can be highly thought-provocative, necessitating creative responses to other gamers. Another, who looked to be from a generation or two older than Bauerlein’s, questioned whether the “good old days” of young people watching TV shows like the Lone Ranger and Howdy Doody were any better than what youths watch today.

Chances are those words elicited some kind of emotion.

If you’re under 30, you may have just looked up or away from your digital device and rolled your eyes.

If you’re over 30, your facial expression might be an unbidden, but half-amused grimace accompanied by a bit of nodding.

If you’d like to hear and engage with the author in person, whether to take issue with his stance, and/or to soak up the intellectual discourse of one of the eminent thinkers of the day, you’re in luck.

Author Mark Bauerlein, an English professor at Emory University, will speak at ˛ÝÝŽÉçÇř Thursday, Feb. 5, on “The Humanities in the Digital Age.” Bauerlein’s talk will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Strite Conference Room in the Campus Center, followed by a discussion with the audience, including formal responses by , professor of , and , director of residence life.

Bauerlein will also speak at Friday’s 10 a.m. chapel in Lehman Auditorium on “From Atheism to Catholocism.” A talk-back with refreshments follows in Common Grounds from 10:30-11:30 a.m.

Bauerlein has taught at Emory University since 1989, with a break in 2003-05 to serve as the Director of the Office of Research and Analysis, at the National Endowment for the Arts. He has published numerous scholarly works, including an acclaimed account of a 1906 race riot in Atlanta, Negrophobia. In addition, his work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, The Washington Post, Times Literary Supplement, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, where his blog eloquently promotes the humanities.

For a preview of his visit– and to develop a sense of Bauerlein’s wide-ranging and deeply personal conversation with and among great texts as an enlivened source of consolation, wisdom and revelation – read ,” published in the magazine First Things (in one sentence, he quotes Sartre, Faulkner and Nietzche, in that order).

That essay, and Bauerlein’s unique perspective about the relevance of the humanities in the digital age are reasons why , professor of , is pleased to welcome him to campus. Both Bauerlein’s book and academic studies are closely linked to this year’s campus Common Read selection, Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.

At a time when study of the humanities are under attack, Bauerlein is an ally of the many professors on college campuses who “are eager to give students exposure to great texts, images, sounds and ideas,” says Medley, who notes that it’s not the digital devices themselves that are the problem, but the time-consuming and intense nature of the peer-to-peer relationships they enable. “If we can lure them away from their addicting digital devices, we think we can get them hooked.”

Bauerlein’s lecture is the fourth event in a year-long exploration of the effects of the digital age on education. He joins two other scholars, both from University of Virginia, who have lectured on this theme: Siva Vaidhyanathan, professor of media studies and author of “The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry), and Dan Willingham, professor of psychology and author of “When Can You Trust the Experts? How to Tell Good Science from Bad In Education.”

Bolgiano will read and comment on her work Nov. 6 at a event in the at ˛ÝÝŽÉçÇř. The talk, which is free for the EMU community, begins at 6:30 p.m. The public is welcome, and donations are requested. Light refreshments will be available.

Bolgiano writes on her that after retiring from James Madison University, she “muddled into a so-called writing career,” yet her second career has earned many accolades.

“Like many good writers, Chris Bolgiano is fully committed to her subject, which is the protection and sustenance of Appalachian forests,” said , chair of the at EMU. “More than many writers, however, her prose radiates a passion that compels its readers to embrace the same cause. Her books should be required reading for anyone living within a day’s driving distance of the 13 million or more acres of ecologically rich national and state forests that grace the eastern United States.”

Bolgiano’s most recent book is (2011).

Prior to this, Bolgiano published five books. Mighty Giants: An American Chestnut Anthology (2007) won the 2008 Independent Publisher Book Award, Silver, for Best Regional Non-Fiction. In addition, Living in the Appalachian Forest: True Tales of Sustainable Forestry (2002) was awarded the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Reed Memorial Award for Outstanding Writing on the Southern Environment and the Virginia Outdoor Writers Association’s Excellence in Craft Contest.

She has also written nature and travel articles for The New York Times, Washington Post, American Forests, Sierra, Audubon, and many other publications, including the 50th anniversary history of her hometown Ruritan Club.

“We are fortunate to have Chris as a writer and advocate in this region, and are excited to have her come share with the EMU community,” said , professor in EMU’s . “Her local knowledge conveys a sense of wonder for the beautiful Appalachian forests, and her passion for the local environment inspires those who hear her speak, and who read her books. Chris demonstrates that intense love for place that comes from intimately knowing your local environment, and encourages us to strive for the same.”

Mighty Giants and Southern Appalachian Celebration are available through Nov. 10 in the language and literature department office at Roselawn. Copies will also be available for purchase and signing at the event.

Lyrical words filled Lehman Auditorium last Wednesday evening, capturing the attention of both poetry fanatics and novices alike at the latest installment of Writer’s Read.

Members of the EMU community gathered together to hear the words of acclaimed poet Evie Shockley. She offered a challenging perspective on modern racism.

The innovative young poet commanded attention from the audience with fullness of voice and idea, aiming to inspire dialogue about the meaning of race and belonging in today’s society.

“Give me good energy,” Shockley encouraged, “because I can feel it in the air.”

Her request was unnecessary; energy seemed to surge from the audience as she read her works.

Reading primarily from her newest book, “The New Black,” Shockley used her craft to encourage thinking, to encourage feeling, and to question preconceived notions about race.

She proposed that freedom and equality do not exist in the quantities we have idealized; not enough has changed to liberate us from our pattern of sparking the hope of change before slipping back into racism.

Reflecting on Obama’s election in her poem “My Last Modernist Poem #4 or, ‘Re Re-Birth of a Nation,’” Shockley notes, “This miracle marks an end like year’s / end, the kind that whips around again / and again.” The song of hope is cyclical, soon to be drowned out by the echoes of history.

Through her poetry, Shockley highlights the tension she feels between positive and negative legacies of her childhood.

“My inspiration for this next poem,” Shockley chuckled, “came from a good friend of mine who tried to sell his blackness on eBay.” The audience expressed both relief and devastation by her jest, uplifted for a moment out of the crushing weight of sorrow evoked by the tangible darkness of her previous poems.

Shockley concluded by sending a metaphorical breath of life into several poems, including “acrobatics” and “duck, duck redux.”

She chose to compose these poems “just for fun because language is fun.”

The audience seemed to be in agreement, showing their affirmation with laughter and delighted murmurs of appreciation.

Following the poetry reading, listeners were invited to engage Shockley in a question and answer session.

… [Questions] varied from “What is your favorite poetic form?” to, “As a southern black woman, what are you looking for when you look back on history?” to, “Can you see poetic language as a healing process for the United States?” Shockley gave answers to each question.

“[We need] to take seriously the lessons of the past,” Shockley advised. “Having the mindset that we’re all in this planet together would prevent all the calamities we hope never come to pass in the future.”

The sense of authority in her words lingered in the air long past the conclusion of the evening. Mike Medley, chair of the language and literature department, publicly complimented, “That was one of the most moving poetry readings I’ve attended.”

“Shockley brings excitement as she goes beyond reading to performing her work,” said Michael Medley, chair of language and literature at EMU. “The racial identity and justice themes in some of her poems will resonate with the justice concerns of many at EMU.”

Shockley has published four collections of poetry: The Gorgon GoddessĚý˛š˛ÔťĺĚýa half-red sea were published by Carolina Wren Press in 2001 and 2006 ˛š˛ÔťĺĚý31 words * prose poems in 2007 (Belladonna Books). Her most recent collection the new black (Wesleyan University Press, 2011) received the 2012 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Poetry.

Two of Shockley’s poems were displayed in the Biko 30/30 exhibit, a commemoration of the life and work of anti-apartheid activist Steven Biko, which toured South Africa in 2007.

Shockley is an associate professor of English at Rutgers University in New Jersey, specializing in African American and African diaspora literature, especially poetry. She has authored a scholarly study of black aesthetics entitled Renegade Poetics.

Shockley will also be a part of James Madison University’s Furious Flower Poetry Festival, Sept. 24-27. Visit FuriousFlower2014.com, or call 540-568-8883 for more information.

Writers Read information

Sign-language interpretation is available upon request.

• General public, $5 at the door

• EMU students (with identification), free

Khan is the author of two novels, Noor (2003) and Five Queen’s Road (2009), both with story lines that highlight the human strength and spirit despite tragedies. She was awarded a Fulbright grant to conduct research in Pakistan and Bangladesh for Noor and was awarded a Malahat Review Novella prize for a piece that was the starting point for her novel-in-progress.

“Sorayya Khan is a compelling storyteller whose work helps readers become more conversant with South Asian history and cultures,” said Michael Medley, chair of language and literature at EMU. “I am especially impressed with her novel Noor because of the sensitive way that it portrays the traumas of a war that Americans know little about, the Bangladesh war of independence in 1971.

“What is more remarkable is that she has created this work as a person rooted in Pakistan, a nation that has never acknowledged the atrocities committed by its army,” he said. “Her courage in writing this novel can remind us that Americans also suppress the truth or remain willfully ignorant about traumas that we have inflicted on others.”

The daughter of a Pakistani father and a Dutch mother, Khan was born in Europe and moved to Pakistan as a child. She now lives in Ithaca, New York, where her husband is a college professor.

Khan is the recipient of a Constance Saltonstall artist grant, which took her to Banda Aceh, Indonesia, after the tsunami where she interviewed survivors.

She has been published in various literary quarterlies, including The Kenyon Review and North American Review, and several anthologies.

More information

Sign-language interpretation is available upon request. Admission is free but a donation is encouraged.

Earlier that day, at 4 p.m. in Suter Science Center room 104, Minick will talk about creating and operating one of the first certified-organic, pick-your-own blueberry farms in his home region, the topic of his memoir.

Both events are free and open to the public, though a donation for the evening event will be welcomed.

Minick has authored two books of poetry, Her Secret SongĚý˛š˛ÔťĺĚýBurning Heaven, a collection of essays, Finding a Clear Path, and edited of All There Is to Keep by Rita Riddle. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in many publications, including Oxford American, Shenandoah, Orion, San Francisco Chronicle, Encyclopedia of Appalachia, Conversations with Wendell Berry, The Sun, ˛š˛ÔťĺĚýWind.

Minick’s book of poems, Burning Heaven, was awarded the “Jefferson Cup” for best book of the year by the Virginia College Bookstore Association in 2008.

Minick teaches at Radford University and Converse College and is the Fred Chappell Fellow at University of North Carolina-Greensboro, where he’s pursuing an MFA.

Sign-language interpretation is available upon request.

Penner released her debut novel-in-stories, Shaken in the Water (Foxhead Books), in April 2013.

“The reality of the world Jessica Penner creates in Shaken in the Water is never quite what it appears to be: love can so swiftly shift-shape into hatred, rage into compassion, understanding into rejection and longing,” said Rudy Wiebe, a Canadian Mennonite author. “But for the reader there is always the voice calling, ‘Herein!’ – ‘Come in!’”

Penner has been published in Bellevue Literary Review, Center for Mennonite Writing, Rhubarb and the anthology Tongue Screws and Testimonies. She won an honorable mention for the short story “Homebody” in Open City’s RRofihe Trophy contest and an honorable mention for the essay “Mustard Seed” in Bellevue Literary Review’s Burns Archive Prize for nonfiction.

“Mustard Seed” was also nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

“In both story and memoir forms, Jessica’s voice is unflinchingly confessional,” said Kirsten Beachy, assistant professor of English at EMU. “As she reveals the hidden moments of her character’s lives at her reading, you may begin to wonder whether she knows your secrets, too.”

Penner earned a BA in theater and English at EMU and a MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. She previously taught English to international students at James Madison University and currently resides in New York City.

For more information on Penner visit the .

More information

Sign-language interpretation is available upon request. Admission is free but a donation is encouraged.