Aetna Chair of Writing

Alumni Poetry Reading with Meghan Maguire Dahn and Matthew Salyer. Sponsored by the Creative Writing Program.

Meghan Maguire Dahn grew up in the middle of the woods. She is the author of Domain (forthcoming from Burnside Review Press in 2022) and the chapbook Lucid Animal (winner of the Harbor Review Editor’s Prize, 2021). Her first poem was published in Highlights Magazine and read primarily in waiting rooms by children nervous about getting shots or stitches. Her work has also appeared or is forthcoming in Boston Review, the Iowa Review, the Cincinnati Review, Denver Quarterly, Small Orange, Bennington Review, the Boog City Reader, Blunderbuss, The Journal, Poetry Northwest, Phantom Limb, the Beloit Poetry Journal, Gulf Stream, among others. She was selected for the 2017 Best New American Poets anthology by Natalie Diaz and she was a winner of the 2014 Discovery/92ndStreet Y Poetry Prize (judges: Eduardo Corral, Rosanna Warren, Susan Mitchell, and John Ashbery). She was also a finalist for the Akron Poetry Prize, the Wisconsin Poetry Series' Brittingham and Felix Pollak Prizes in Poetry, and the Pamet River Prize. She has an MFA from Columbia University’s School of the Arts.

Matthew Carey Salyer is an associate professor of English at West Point. He is the author of Ravage & Snare (Pen and Anvil, 2020), and the chapbook, Lambkin (Pen and Anvil, 2019). His second collection, Probation, is forthcoming in 2021. His work has appeared in Narrative, The Common, Hunger Mountain, Poetry Northwest, Beloit Poetry Journal, Massachusetts Review, The Florida Review, New Orleans Review, and numerous other journals. He is a two-time finalist for the Iowa Review Prize, a finalist for the Jeff Sharlet Memorial Award, and a semifinalist for the Brittingham and Felix Pollak Prizes in Poetry. He is the author of an academic monograph on the British Empire and scholarly articles on a range of subjects in Nineteenth Century Studies, American Indian Culture and Research Journal, Gothic Studies, Mississippi Review, Victorian Periodical Review, Studies in Burke and His Age, and elsewhere. He writes regularly for Forbes Magazine. Most recently, he appeared in the British crime documentary, Dirtier, Sexier, and Totally Iconic. Find him at http://matthewcareysalyer.com.

With over 96 books to her credit, Dr. Jan Spivey Gilchrist's career as a fine artist has spanned a quarter of a century. She has exhibited extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and the Caribbean. Dr. Gilchrist has won numerous awards and commissions throughout her career, including the Coretta Scott King Award for Nathaniel Talking, and a Coretta Scott King Honor Book Award for Night on Neighborhood Street. Dr. Gilchrist has four degrees: a BS in Art Education from Eastern Illinois University, an MA in painting from the University of Northern Iowa, an MFA in writing for children from Vermont College, and a doctoral degree in English from Madison University. Dr. Gilchrist is also the winner of the Zora Neale Hurston Award, the highest honor given by the National Association of Black Storytellers, Inc. and in 2016, she was honored with a 2016 Women That Soar Award. She was inducted into the International Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent in October of 2000. In 2001, Dr. Gilchrist was inducted into the prestigious Society of Illustrators.


Jan's website: https://janspiveygilchrist.com

Registration required.