MACON — Mercer University will hold its first a Reunion of Mercer Writers today and Friday featuring readings and talks by alumni writers and poets on the Macon campus. The event also will include a keynote presentation by Judson Mitcham, the Ferrol A. Sams Jr. Distinguished Writer in Residence for 2013. The reunion event will welcome Mercerians back to campus for readings and conversations today in the Presidents Dining Room of the University Center and on Friday in Newton Chapel and Hardeman Hall. The events, which are free and open to the public, are sponsored by Mercer's English Department and the creative writing program.
Mitcham will deliver the keynote presentation, titled “Prayers and Weapons” at 7:30 p.m. in the Presidents Dining Room of the University Center. Widely known as a poet and novelist, Mitcham is also an instructor in Mercer's creative writing program. He was named poet laureate of Georgia by Gov. Nathan Deal in 2012 and is a 2013 inductee in the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.
Thursday
All events are in the Presidents Dining Room
2:15 p.m.: Welcome and opening remarks
2:30 p.m.: Poet Dorothy Dannenberg (CLA '09)
3 p.m.: Poet, publisher and performer Christopher K.P. Brown (CLA '07)
3:30 p.m.:Essayist and poet Cara Gibson (CLA'07)
4 p.m.: Break
4:15 p.m.: Prose writer, editor and artistic community cultivator Cristina Martin ('07)
4:45 p.m.: Fiction writer Amy Riddle Hauser (CLA '07)
5:15 p.m.: Poet Shervette Miller-Payton (CLA '00)
5:45 p.m.: Break
7:30 p.m.: Judson Mitcham, “Prayers and Weapons”
8:30-9:30 p.m.: Alumni open mic readings
Friday
Events in Newton Chapel and Hardeman Hall
9 a.m.: Poet and critic Dr. Jordan Dominy (CLA '04)
9:30 a.m.: Fiction writer Scott Hughes (CLA '02)
10 a.m.: Gallery talk by book artist and printer Amy Pirkle (CLA '02), Hardeman Hall
10:30 a.m.: Poet Sara Pirkle Hughes (CLA '02)
11 a.m.: Break
11:15 a.m.: Poet Whitney Gray (CLA '08)
11:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m.: Alumni open mic readings
12:15: Panel discussion, students and faculty, question and answer
