Hope College鈥檚 Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series will feature two authors with Hope ties, Anna Gazmarian and Heather Sellers, on Monday, Sept. 30, for the 19th annual Tom Andrews Memorial Reading, which is named in honor of a Hope graduate who was a poet.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
Sellers is a former member of the Hope English faculty, and Gazmarian is a Hope graduate.
The event will take place on Monday, Sept. 30, at 7 p.m. in Schaap Auditorium of the
Jim and Martie Bultman Student Center. It will include a question-and-answer opportunity
with Gazmarian and Sellers, who will also be available to sign copies of their books.
Anna Gazmarian graduated from Hope in 2014 and holds an MFA in creative writing from the Bennington Writing Seminars. Her essays have been published in The Rumpus, Longreads, The Sun and The Guardian. She lives in Durham, North Carolina.
鈥淒evout,鈥� her first book, follows Gazmarian's journey as a college student recently diagnosed with bipolar and seeking to find solace and support in the only community, and belief system, she had ever known as a devout Christian of Evangelical faith. At turns harrowing, humorous and humble in her approach, Gazmarian asks: 鈥淗ow can we learn to recover from what seems unrecoverable? How do we live with life-altering events, such as receiving a severe mental health diagnosis? How do we keep going when hope seems lost?鈥� 鈥淒evout鈥� proves that, in a society that pits devotion to a higher power against a belief in medicine, strong narratives are needed that show how the pursuit of mental, emotional, psychological and spiritual well-being is all governed by faith; that fear of falling short in our faith makes us human; and that, sometimes, being human is all that God asks of us.
Heather Sellers was a member of the Hope faculty from 1995 to 2013, and received the
Hope Outstanding Professor Educator (H.O.P.E.) Award from the graduating Class of
2011. A Florida native, she is the author of four poetry collections, most recently
鈥淔ield Notes from the Flood Zone,鈥� a book of prose poems sprung from her daily observation
journals and haunted by ghosts from the past. As described by the publisher, the collection
is 鈥渋s a double love letter: to a beautiful and fragile landscape, and to the vulnerable
young girl who grew up in an extraordinarily difficult home. It is an elegy for the
two great shaping forces in a life, heartbreaking family struggle and a collective
lost treasure, our stunning, singular, desecrated Florida, and all its remnant beauty.鈥�
Sellers is also the author of two textbooks and two books on craft, as well as a children's book, a collection of short stories, and a memoir, 鈥淵ou Don鈥檛 Look Like Anyone I Know.鈥� Recent essays have been selected for the 鈥淏est American Essays鈥� and awarded a Pushcart Prize; these essays appear in The New York Times, Reader鈥檚 Digest, Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, The Sun, and O, the Oprah Magazine. She regularly speaks to audiences about prosopagnosia (face blindness), most recently at NASA. Currently she is director of the undergraduate and MFA creative writing programs at the University of South Florida, where she was awarded a university teaching award and more recently received USF鈥檚 Kosove Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching and Service.
The annual Tom Andrews Memorial Reading features writers who graduated from or are associated with Hope College. Andrews (1961-2001) was a 1984 Hope graduate who following his time at Hope earned his MFA at the University of Virginia. In his lifetime, he published three books of poems and a memoir, 鈥淐odeine Diary,鈥� about his coming to terms with his hemophilia and his determined refusal to let it circumscribe his life. He also edited two collections of essays, 鈥淭he Point Where All Things Meet: Essays on Charles Wright鈥� and 鈥淥n William Stafford: The Worth of Local Things.鈥� In 2002, Oberlin College Press published 鈥淩andom Symmetries: The Collected Poems of Tom Andrews,鈥� a posthumous volume consisting of two previously published books of poetry, 鈥淭he Brother鈥檚 Country鈥� and 鈥淭he Hemophiliac鈥檚 Motorcycle,鈥� and other works.
More information about the Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series and about the Sept. 30 event can be found online at hope.edu/jrvws
To inquire about accessibility or if you need accommodations to fully participate in the event, please email accommodations@hope.edu. Updates related to events are posted when available at hope.edu/calendar in the individual listings.
The Jim and Martie Bultman Student Center is located at 115 E. 12th St., at the center of the Hope campus between College and Columbia avenues along the former 12th Street. Schaap Auditorium is on the lower level near the building鈥檚 southwest corner.