UC’s Visiting Writers Series to host an in-person return
First event of the season welcomes novelist Luke Geddes, poet Yalie Sawada Kamara
The creative writing program at the University of Cincinnati, offered through the College of Arts and Sciences, hosts its Visiting Writers Series each semester to welcome distinguished authors to campus to read their work.
Program coordinators are excited to announce that this year, the series will be held in-person, after two years of a virtual format. The event is free and open to the public. It will take place on Sept. 14 at 5:30 p.m. in the Elliston Poetry Room, located in Langsam Library, 2911 Woodside Drive. There will also be a live virtual option offered.
“After two years of hosting remote events, we are thrilled to return to an in-person visiting writers series,” says Jennifer Habel, coordinator of creative writing. “The experience of listening to literature as part of a live audience is a uniquely meaningful one. It creates a sense of community and allows audience members to feel connected to the author.”
The first event with be a combined fiction and poetry reading. Two UC alumni will be reading to kick off the first event of the year, Luke Geddes and Yalie Saweda Kamara. Geddes earned his PhD in creative writing and comparative literature from UC, where Kamara earned her PhD in creative writing and English literature.
The experience of listening to literature as art of a live audience is a uniquely meaningful one.
Jennifer Habel Coordinator, UC creative writing program
Author Luke Geddes
Geddes is the author of “Heart of Junk” (Simon & Schuster), a debut novel revolving around the exploits of a group of merchants at a Kansas antique mall. The novel earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly, which called it “quirky treat for fans of flyover state humor.” Listed as a Best Book of 2020 on NPR’s “Weekend Edition,” it is also currently being considered by Fox 21 Studios for a possible television adaptation.
Kamara is the author of “A Brief Biography of my Name” and “When the Living Sing.” She is also the editor for “What You Need to Know About Me: Young Writers on Their Experience with Immigration.”
Poet Yalie Saweda Kamara
She also serves as the 2022-2023 Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate, serving a two-year term. She is currently an adjust assistant professor here at the University of Cincinnati and works as the Director of Creative Youth Leadership at WordPlay Cincy.
Find out more about the fall semester visiting writers series here. Sign up to attend the event virtually via registration here.
Featured image at top: Book collection. Credit/Alfons Morales for Unsplash.
By Hayley Garr
Student Journalist, A&S Department of Marketing and Communication
artscinews@ucmail.uc.edu
Related Stories
UC Foundation reveals 2025 philanthropy winners
October 27, 2025
The University of Cincinnati Foundation recognized its Outstanding Philanthropic Volunteer Award honorees at the George Rieveschl Recognition Dinner on Oct. 23, 2025.
UC team unveils Wyandot Removal Trail across Ohio
October 24, 2025
Rebecca Wingo, an associate professor of history and director of the public history program in the University of Cincinnati’s College of Arts and Sciences, is featured in a WVXU story about new historical markers honoring the Wyandot people—the last Indigenous nation forcibly removed from Ohio.
John Updike called his letters dull. They’re anything but.
October 23, 2025
James A. Schiff, founding editor of The John Updike Review and UC English professor, edited Selected Letters of John Updike, the first comprehensive collection of the author’s correspondence. Drawing from thousands of letters spanning Updike’s life, Schiff offers new insight into the writer’s personal and literary world. The volume was edited by The New York Times.