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• Distinguished Visiting Writers Series
• Next Visiting Writer: Vivian Gornick

As part of the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa visited Ithaca College to teach a class of writing students and give a reading of his work to the greater Ithaca community. Komunyakaa's poetry reflects his experience as a soldier in the Vietnam War as well as his upbringing in the pre-civil rights South. 

Komunyakaa's visit to Ithaca College marks the second writer in the series this semester. Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction writer Robert Olen Butler was featured in February. And acclaimed essayist Vivian Gornick will be teaching students and reading to the public on Tuesday, April 1, at 7:30 p.m., in Beeler Hall in the Whalen Center.

Since 1999, the Ithaca College Writing Department has sponsored the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series, an opportunity for students interested in writing to learn from the masters. Generally, writers, who in the past have included George Saunders, Joyce Carol Oates, and Adrienne Rich, hold one-on-one conferences with students, teach classes, and give lectures and public readings throughout their visit.