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Visiting Authors

The University of North Georgia Visiting Authors Program hosts contemporary writers to discuss their work with our students and community, offering illuminating perspectives on human experience—revealed through their poetry, fiction, essays, and memoirs—as well as insights about the writing and publishing processes.

Spring 2019

Nayomi Munaweera is the award-winning author of Island of a Thousand Mirrors and What Lies Between Us. Her work has been widely anthologized. Island of a Thousand Mirrors, a book about the Sri Lankan civil war, was long-listed for the Man Asia Literary Prize and the Dublin IMPAC Prize. It won the Commonwealth Regional Prize for the Asian Region. What Lies Between Us explores the ongoing legacies of intergenerational trauma and secrecy. It won the Sri Lankan National Book Award. Munaweera currently teaches at Mills College and at the Ashland University low-residency MFA Program.

Past Events

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Spring 2018

Acclaimed author of the novels Playing for the Devil's Fire, Sofrito, and short fiction in national literary journals, Phillippe Diederich, will give a talk titled, "From Headlines to Fiction: How Current Events Influence Literature."

Focusing on his novel Playing for the Devil’s Fire (an acclaimed young adult novel set in Mexico), Diederich will discuss the power of fiction and how stories that address social issues can tug at our emotions and lead us to better understand ourselves and others.

Fall 2017

Stoker on Stoker poster

Dacre Stoker, great grand-nephew of Bram Stoker, co-author of Dracula the Un-Dead (a sequel to Dracula) and co-editor of The Lost Journal of Bram Stoker: The Dublin Years, will give a presentation - "Stoker on Stoker."

Along with the never-before-published and seldom-seen historic images, Stoker provides a glimpse behind the scenes of Bram Stoker and Dracula.

Spring 2015

Tony Grooms

Tony Grooms, Poet & Novelist

Focus Works: Bombingham (2001), Trouble No More (2006), Ice Poems (1988)

Support/Affiliation: Presented as part of the Southern Literary Festival, co-sponsored with the Georgia Humanities Council

December 2014

Grand Central Review

Hosted the launch of Grand Central Review, an online space for fiction, poetry, reviews, columns, and art. The website's editors—Richard Monaco, Scott Thompson, and Leverett Butts—led the on-site and remote roundtable conversation. A book signing followed the roundtable discussion.

Support/Affiliation: UNG College of Arts & Letters

Fall 2014

Joe Oestreich

Joe Oestreich, Memoirist and Non-fiction Writer

Focus Work: Hitless Wonder: A Life in Minor League Rock and Roll (2011)

Spring 2014

Judson Mitcham

Judson Mitcham, Poet Laureate of Georgia, Novelist

Focus Work: A Little Salvation: Poems Old and New (2007)

Other Works: Somewhere in Ecclesiastes (1991), The Sweet Everlasting (1996), Sabbath Creek (2004)

More Information: Georgia Encyclopedia entry

Fall 2013

Christal Presley

Christal Presley, Memoirist

Focus Work: Thirty Days with My Father: Finding Peace from Wartime PTSD (2012)

Spring 2013

Quentin Falk

Quentin Falk, Film Critic, and Non-fiction Writer

Focus Work: The Musical Milkman Murder (2012)

Fall 2012

Melissa Fay Greene

Melissa Fay Greene, Non-fiction Writer and Essayist

Focus Work: No Biking in the House without a Helmet (2011)

Other Works: There Is No Me without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Her Nation's Children (2006), Last Man Out (2003), The Temple Bombing (1996), Praying for Sheetrock (1991)

Spring 2012

Frank Walker

Photo by Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Frank X Walker, Poet

Focus Works: Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate this Ride (2010), Buffalo Dance: The Journey of York (2003), Black Box: Poems (2005)

Support/Affiliation: Supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts

Fall 2011

Sonya Huber

Sonya Huber, Memoirist

Focus Work: Opa Nobody (2008)

Support/Affiliation: With grant funding from the Georgia Humanities Council, which is supported through funds appropriated by the Georgia General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Humanities

Fall 2010

Silas House, Novelist and Non-fiction writer

Focus Works: Eli the Good (2009), Something's Rising (2009), Clay's Quilt (2001)

Support/Affiliation: In partnership with the Georgia Appalachian Studies Center

Scott Miller, Singer and Songwriter

Spring 2010

Laila Lalami

Laila Lalami, Novelist

Focus Work: Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (2005)

Support/Affiliation: Supported by the Hoag Lecture Series

Fall 2008

Anne Dismukes Amerson, Non-fiction Writer

Focus Work: Dahlonega's Gold (2008)

Fall 2007

Jackie Cooper

Jackie K Cooper, Fiction Writer

Focus Work: The Bookbinder (2006)

Spring 2007

Diane Gabaldon

Diane Gabaldon, Novelist

Focus Work: Outlander (1992)

Support/Affiliation: In conjunction with the Dahlonega Literary Festival

Fall 2006

Brian Corrigan

Brian Corrigan, Novelist

Focus Work: The Poet of Loch Ness (2005)

Spring 2006

Margaret Edson, Playwright

Focus Work: Wit (1999)

Fall 2005

Terry Kay

Terry Kay, Novelist

Focus Works: The Valley of Light (2003), To Dance with the White Dog (1991)

Fall 2004

Linda Niemann

Linda G Niemann, Memoirist

Focus Works: Railroad Voices (1998), Boomer: A Railroad Journey (1992)

Spring 2004

Natasha Trethewey, Poet

Focus Works: Belocq's Ophelia (2002), Domestic Work (2000)

Fall 2003

Lorraine Lopez

Lorraine Lopez, Fiction Writer

Focus Work: Soy la Avon Lady and Other Stories (2002)

Spring 2003

Janisse Ray, Creative Non-fiction Writer

Focus Work: Ecology of a Cracker Childhood (2000)

Fall 2002

Judith Ortiz Cofer

Judith Ortiz Cofer, Poet, Essayist, and Fiction Writer

Focus Works: Woman in Front of the Sun (2000), The Latin Deli: Telling the Lives of Barrio Women (1993), Silent Dancing (1991)

Spring 2002

Lynn Hinton

Lynn Hinton, Novelist

Focus Work: Friendship Cake (2001)

Fall 2001

Amy Blackmarr

Amy Blackmarr, Memoirist

Focus Works: Above the Fall Line (2003), Going to Ground (1997)

Spring 2001

Michael Bishop

Photo by Jeri Bishop

Michael Bishop, Poet, Novelist, and Short Fiction Writer

Focus Work: Time Pieces (1998)

Fall 2000

Lee Abbott

Lee Abbott, Novelist

Focus Work: Living after Midnight (1991)

Spring 2000

Le Ly Hayslip, Novelist

Focus Work: When Heaven and Earth Changed Places (1989)

Spring 1999

Fred Chappell, Author and Poet

Focus Works: More Shapes Than One (1992), I Am One of You Forever (1987)

Jill McCorkle

Jill McCorkle, Novelist

Focus Work: Final Vinyl Days and Other Stories (1998)

Spring 1998

Bette Bao Lord, Memoirist

Focus Works: In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson (1984), Spring Moon (1982)

Spring 1997

N. Scott Momaday, Poet and Novelist

Focus Work: The Way to Rainy Mountain (1969)

Spring 1996

Ernest Gaines

Photo by Joseph Sanford

Ernest Gaines

Focus Works: A Lesson Before Dying (1993), A Gathering of Old Men (1983), The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971)

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