READ/WRITE Series

In the Fall of 2006, Assistant Professor Peter Covino formally stepped up to become the Director of the Read/Write series. Covino coordinated a full calendar of events for the Fall 2007 series. Stay tuned for the Spring 2008 Schedule of READ/WRITE events.

Download Fall 2007 Calendar (for printing)

Download Spring 2007 Calendar (for printing)

Download Fall 2006 Calendar (for printing)

History: For decades, the URI Writers Collective, a dedicated group of faculty, graduate students, and occasionally community members, have hosted readings and workshops, organized colloquia and discussion groups relative to the literary arts, initiated a Coffee Hour for URI undergraduate English majors, (to encourage dialogue beyond the classroom), and orchestrated undergraduate and graduate readings that emerge from our Creative Writing seminars. In 2005-2006, URI English major alum and New School graduate, Penelope Cray, having returned temporarily to teach part-time at URI, formalized the Writers Collective reading series, titled it Read/Write, and co-organized the series with Professor Mary Cappello.

In its inaugural year, the Read/Write Series was designed specifically to showcase the range and depth of literary practice, talent, and expertise of per course Instructors who teach in the English Department, whose work otherwise might miss attention, as well as to continue the initiative to bring writers from across the country and abroad to read at URI. In ‘05/’06, the series featured the writers Talvikki Ansel, Matthea Harvey, Amity Gaige, Kevin Prufer, Gillian Kiley, Anna Rabinowitz, Miranda Mellis, Christina Pugh, Kate Schatz, Jason Stumpf, Tisa Bryant, Robert Leuci, Timothy Watt, Mary Angel Blount, Sam White, Jessica Gianfrocco, Craig Morgan Teicher, Matt Derby, Kathleen Hughes, and Jody Lisberger.

In years past, the Writers Collective boasted the presence on campus of acclaimed British novelist, Sarah Waters; biographer, memoirist and literary critic, Sharon O’Brien; Russian literary theorist and writer, Mikhail Epstein; Sicilian American writer and critic Edvige Giunta and filmmaker, Kym Ragusa; queer nonfiction, fiction writer, and film theorist, James Morrison; African American fiction and nonfiction writer, Thomas Glave; poet and editor of Barrow Street, Peter Covino; URI alum Norah Pollard, the poet, and daughter of the famous jockey, “Red” Pollard, and URI alum, Michael C. Keith, author of numerous books on broadcast media-radio, and the memoir, The Next Better Place, to name a few. In concert with faculty and students in Modern Languages, the Collective also sponsored multi-lingual readings in comparative literatures, and readings in tandem with art produced by faculty in URI’s Art Department.

The Writers Collective and Read/Write Series is well-known and highly regarded both within and beyond the URI community, and has gained a reputation for its encouragement of shared creativity and spirited discussion.

Funding: In 2005/06, the Read/Write Series was made possible by a hugely successful weeklong Book and Bake Sale carried out by the faculty in the English Department, and thereafter by the generous individual contributions of Professor Dorothy Donnelly, Dean Winifred Brownell, and Provost Beverly Swan. The English Department seeks to establish an Endowment for the Series, and invites Alum and other interested parties to send contributions to The URI Foundation, attn: Gerri Beagle or to Tom Zorabedian.

Contact and Further Information: For more information about the Writers' Collective, please contact Assistant Professor Peter Covino or Professor Mary Cappello.