Michigan State University Department of English

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Michigan State University Department of English

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Department of English at Michigan State University. Striking a balance between creativity and critic

10/06/2026

Oct 9 Friday, 3-4:15 “It Was Hard not to Say Capitalism”: Daniel Borzutzky | A Creative Life in Contemporary Conditions (Literary Reading & Discussion). RCAH Theatre, Snyder Hall

Our visitor will deliver a literary reading revolving around an exciting statement he once made: “It was hard not to say 'capitalism'"to help us imagine the literary arts and translation as a description and/or form of critique of economic systems. Our conversation will revolve around contemporary conditions, the work of witness, translation, and pursuing a poetics with a social conscience.

Daniel Borzutzky is a poet and Spanish-language translator from Chicago. His most recent books are The Murmuring Grief of the Americas and Written After a Massacre in the Year 2018. His 2016 collection, The Performance of Becoming Human, received the National Book Award. Lake Michigan was a finalist for the 2019 International Griffin Poetry Prize. His most recent translations are Cecilia Vicuña’s The Deer Book and Paula Ilabaca Nuñez’s The Loose Pearl, winner of the 2023 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. His translation of Galo Ghigliotto’s Valdivia received the American Literary Translators Association’s 2017 National Translation Award, and he has also translated collections by Raúl Zurita and Jaime Luis Huenún.

All are welcome. The event is free and open to the public.

09/22/2026

Sept 25 Friday, 3PM-4:15 PM: “The Art of Revision: The First & Last Word | Mentorship in Craft with Peter Ho Davies"
RCAH Theatre (Snyder Hall) 3PM-4:15 PM.

Join the acclaimed writer and educator Peter Ho Davies as he brings light to the often-invisible processes of revision. Drawing from his much-beloved book The Art of Revision: The Last Word, and in conversation with Tim Conrad, he shares an exhilarating argument about revision—"that it is the writer who must change, as well as the writing” and mentors emerging young writers in their own processes through a facilitated conversation with MSU’s Tim Conrad. The author of three novels, including A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself, and two story collections, Peter Ho Davies was counted among Granta’s best twenty Best Young British Novelists in the early 2000s, and is the winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Award, PEN/Malamud award for excellence in the short story, the John Llewelyn Rhys and PEN/Macmillan Prize, and anAsian American Literary Award.

All are welcome. The event is free and open to the public.

The fabulous q***r, feminist indie bookstore A Novel Concept will sell copies of DEARBORN, which you may ask to be signed.

(Snyder Hall can be tricky to navigate. Find directions here (https://museum.msu.edu/locations/rcah-theater-snyder-hall) to 362 Bogue Street and allow extra time for your arrival. The RCAH Theatre is on the
“Terrace Level” of Snyder, which is also the basement level.)

09/09/2026

SEPT 11 2026, Friday, 3PM-4:15 PM: “Dearborn: Writing Arab Lives in Michigan |Ghassan Zeineddine | Literary Reading and Conversation with Zarena Aslami"
RCAH Theatre (Snyder Hall) 3PM-4:15 PM.

How do we imagine Arab lives in the Midwest? How do we reflect on American identity in the present, inflected by waves of migration from Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and other nations in the Middle East? How can fiction offer a mirror to the nation’s religious and linguistic plurality? Come listen to Ghassan Zeineddine read from his collections of stories set in the great city of Dearborn, Michigan, the birthplace of Ford Motor Company, renowned for its cultural diversity, featuring the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the United States the largest mosque in North America. Zeineddine’s DEARBORN is a poignant and observant tragic-comedy that Michael Chabon describes as “Sly, straight-faced, tenderly wicked. . . . A classic American short story collection.” NPR says that Zeineddine “builds surprising, tender alliances and chooses idiosyncratic paths that exceed easy stereotypes.” BOMB says that his "compassionate and droll prose, evoke laughter, tears, and introspection.” We hope you join us in witnessing all this and more at the event!

All are welcome. The event is free and open to the public.

The fabulous q***r, feminist indie bookstore A Novel Concept will sell copies of DEARBORN, which you may ask to be signed.

(Snyder Hall can be tricky to navigate. Find directions here (https://museum.msu.edu/locations/rcah-theater-snyder-hall/) to 362 Bogue Street and allow extra time for your arrival. The RCAH Theatre is on the
“Terrace Level” of Snyder, which is also the basement level.)

We are grateful to collaborate with Muslim Studies, Global Studies, and the Middle Eastern North African Faculty and Staff Association (MENA-FSA) to bring Ghassan Zeineddine to campus.

05/01/2026

Congratulations to MSU English’s newest PhD! Drs. Madiha Ghous, Cristóbal Martinez, and Sarah Potts Jones!

04/13/2026

Don't miss out! This Tuesday the 14th, Wells Hall at 4:00 pm

Address

East Lansing, MI

Website

https://linktr.ee/Msuenglish

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