Visiting faculty participating in Bemidji State University’s Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference will share from their work in a series of reading sessions on campus beginning June 22.

Public readings are held each night during the conference, from June 22-27, and will be held in n the Gathering Room in BSU’s American Indian Resource Center. Readings start at 7:30 p.m. nightly and are open free of charge.

A reception and book signing will follow each reading, and books will be available for sale.

This year’s faculty include:
• Judson Mitcham, adjunct instructor of English at Mercer University;
• Aimee Nezhukumatathil, professor of creative writing and environmental literature at State University of New York-Fredonia;
• Camille Dungy, professor of creative writing at San Francisco State University;
• Sheri Joeseph; professor of creative writing at Georgia State University;
and
• Rebecca Brown, artist in residence at University of Washington, Bothell, and MFA writing faculty at Goddard College, Vermont.

Distinguished Visiting Writer Pam Houston
This year’s distinguished visiting writer is author Pam Houston. Houston is the winner of the Western States Book Award, the WILLA award for contemporary fiction, The Evil Companions Literary Award and multiple teaching awards. She is a professor of English at UC Davis, directs the literary nonprofit Writing By Writers and teaches in The Pacific University low-residency MFA program and at writer’s conferences around the country and the world. She lives on a ranch at 9,000 feet in Colorado near the headwaters of the Rio Grande.

Houston’s most recent book is “Contents May Have Shifted,” published in 2012. She is also the author of two collections of linked short stories, “Cowboys Are My Weakness” and “Waltzing the Cat,” the novel “Sight Hound” and a collection of essays, “A Little More About Me,” all published by W.W. Norton. Her stories have been selected for volumes of Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Awards, The 2013 Pushcart Prize and Best American Short Stories of the Century.

Reading Series schedule:
June 22, 7:30 p.m. – Aimee Nezhukumatathil
June 23, 7:30 p.m. – Distinguished Visiting Writer Pam Houston
June 24, 7:30 p.m. – Sheri Joseph
June 25, 7:30 p.m. – Rebecca Brown
June 26, 7:30 p.m. – Judson Mitcham
June 27, 7:30 p.m. – Camille Dungy

The Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference is made possible by the people of Minnesota through grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Region 2 Arts Council and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Contact
• Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference, (218) 755-2068, writersconference@bemidjistate.edu, ornorthwoodswriters.org