Short stories set in Reno, memoirs about personal tragedies, and poetry collections are just some of the writings featured in Sierra Nevada College’s Writers in the Woods Literary Speaker Series, now in its 10th year. The series invites nationally acclaimed writers to the college for Friday evening readings and Saturday workshops, furnishing attendees with the opportunity to write, critique, and discuss literature with the visiting authors and poets. Each event, which is scheduled monthly starting Sept. 5, is open to the public.
“[Writers in the Woods] began as a way to create a literary mecca at the college and bridge the gap between community members and college students,” said June Saraceno, SNC English program chair.
In 2006, the series hosted Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Hass. After reading from his work, Hass began a discussion about the role of the writer and the reader in taking the topics raised in literature — such as environmentalism and ecoliteracy — beyond reading and writing about them.
“People are talking about the ideas and issues writers explore,” Saraceno said. “It makes people think.”
SNC student Emily Provencher credits Patricia Smith’s 2013 Writers in the Woods presentation for pushing her creative writing to new heights.
“[Smith’s] presence alone left me drooling on the page with so many potential poems, let alone the power of her reading and fantastic workshop,” said Provencher.
After her appearance in the series, Smith started teaching at SNC and Provencher signed up for her class.
“Working with her was incredible. I grew greatly as a writer in that time,” Provencher said, noting that under Smith’s guidance she organized open mics on campus and won the 2014 Lake Tahoe Poetry Slam.
Over the past decade, the literary lineup has featured Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried, and Tobias Wolff, crafter of Old School. This year’s first guest is Nick Flynn, known for his award-winning poetry and memoirs. During his reading and workshop, Flynn will discuss his latest book, The Reenactments, in which he describes the pain he revisited during the making of Being Flynn, a film about Flynn’s life and starring Robert DeNiro, Paul Dano, and Julianne Moore. Inspired by his first memoir, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, the film churns through Flynn’s memory slop bucket of his mother’s shotgun suicide, his alcoholic father’s stint in jail, and the reunion of father and son in a Boston homeless shelter.
