The University of Connecticut Creative Writing Program invites you to a reading by poet Chen Chen, who will spend two days at UConn this spring as the Aetna Writer-in-Residence. Chen will offer a free, public reading in the black box theater at the UConn bookstore, 1 Royce Circle, on Wednesday March 1st at 6:30 PM.
Chen Chen is the author of two books of poetry, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency (2022) and When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (2017), which was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the Thom Gunn Award, among other honors. His work appears in many publications, including Poetry and three editions of The Best American Poetry. He has received two Pushcart Prizes and fellowships from Kundiman, the National Endowment for the Arts, and United States Artists. He was the 2018-2022 Jacob Ziskind Poet-in-Residence at Brandeis University and currently teaches for the low-residency MFA programs at New England College and Stonecoast. He lives with his partner, Jeff Gilbert, and their pug, Mr. Rupert Giles.
The Aetna Writer-in-Residence Program began in 2003. Supported by funding from the Aetna Chair in Writing, UConn’s Creative Writing Program invites a nationally or internationally-known author to campus for a residency each semester. As a result of the Aetna Writer-in-Residence program, UConn graduate and undergraduate students can participate in an intense hands-on learning experience with some of today’s most exciting authors.
Past Aetna Writers-in-Residence included Ilya Kaminsky, Jeff Parker, Tara Betts, Kimiko Hahn, Amber Dermont, Jericho Brown, Laura van den Berg, Camille Dungy, Jo-Ann Mapson, Eduardo C. Corral, Andre Dubus III, G.C. Waldrep, Margot Livesey, Shara McCallum, Connie Voisine, Edmund White, Colum McCann, Lynne McMahon, Fay Weldon, Phillis Levin, Allen Kurzweil, Naeem Murr, Steve Almond, C.D. Wright, Stuart O’Nan, and Beth Ann Fennelly.
For more information, contact: Dan Healy at daniel.healy@uconn.edu