BOONE, N.C. — Four award-winning authors will visit Appalachian State University’s Boone campus this spring as part of the university’s 2023–24 Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series.
“We are lucky to have four distinguished and exciting authors visiting this spring whose work challenges us to reimagine the form writing can take,” said App State’s Evan Gray, visiting assistant professor in the Department of English.
The visiting authors, in order of appearance:
- Poet Keith Wilson, Feb. 29.
- Graphic novelist Kayla E., March 21.
- Poet M. Soledad Caballero ’95, April 11.
- Novelist Jason Mott, April 18.
In afternoon programs, each author will lead talks on the craft of writing. Through these talks, aspiring writers can learn how to refine techniques, develop sounder work habits and gain a greater appreciation of the writing process. Evening programs begin at 6 p.m. and feature the authors reading from and discussing their work.
Admission to all events is free and open to the public. Book sales and signings will follow the talks and readings.
The spring 2024 Visiting Writing Series is co-sponsored by App State’s Department of English, The Schaefer Center Presents performing arts series and Appalachian Journal: A Regional Studies Review.
University Libraries has created a spring 2024 Visiting Writers Series guide that provides information about each author and shows which of the authors’ books are available through the library.
For information on visitor parking for Boone campus events, visit the university’s Parking and Transportation website at parking.appstate.edu/visitors-events. For additional information about the spring series, visit the Department of English website and/or contact series co-directors Ashleigh Bryant Phillips (phillipsab2@appstate.edu) or Evan Gray (grayem1@appstate.edu), both of whom are visiting assistant professors in the English department.
About the authors
Keith Wilson
Poet Keith Wilson. Photo submitted
Wilson is a game designer, an Affrilachian poet and a Cave Canem Fellow. His poetry has won the Rumi Prize and been anthologized in “Best New Poets” and “Best of the Net,” and his book “Fieldnotes on Ordinary Love” was recognized by The New York Times as a best new book of poetry.
Wilson’s nonfiction has won an Indiana Review Nonfiction Prize and the Redivider Blurred Line Prize, and has been anthologized in the award-winning collection “Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy.”
His work in game design includes “Once Upon a Tale,” a storytelling card game, and alternate reality games for the University of Chicago.
Wilson has received numerous fellowships and grants supporting his work, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, an Elizabeth George Foundation Grant and an Illinois Arts Council Agency Award.
Kayla E.
Graphic novelist Kayla E. Tintype by Sara Mulvey
E., a Texas-born artist and designer of Mexican American descent, works as creative director at the publisher Fantagraphics and is the co-founder and resident of Nat. Brut Inc., a nonprofit that produces the art and literary magazine Nat. Brut. Her experimental graphic memoir, “Precious Rubbish,” will be published by Fantagraphics in 2025.
Her comics practice centers around her childhood and functions, according to E., as a map-making exercise. Her textile work and painting practice are concerned with memories that present as unmappable.
E. has served as a public speaker at universities and creative conferences across the country and is a recipient of a 2023–24 Princeton Hodder Fellowship. She earned her B.A. from Harvard University.
E. resides in rural North Carolina, where she lives with her wife, Laura Bullard.
Dr. M. Soledad Caballero ’95
Poet M. Soledad Caballero ’95. Photo courtesy of M. Soledad Caballero
Caballero, professor of English and co-chair of the women’s, gender and sexuality program at Allegheny College, is the author of “I Was a Bell,” which won the 2019 Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award. This debut poetry collection was the 2022 International Association of Autoethnography and Narrative Inquiry Book of the Year and winner of the 2022 International Latino Book Award.
Caballero’s second collection, tentatively titled “Flight Plan,” is forthcoming from Red Hen Press. Her poems have appeared in the Missouri Review, the Iron Horse Literary Review and other venues.
A Macondo Fellow and a CantoMundo Fellow, Caballero was a 2022 finalist for the Iron Horse Review’s National Poetry Month issue and winner of the 2019 Joy Harjo Poetry Prize from Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts.
Caballero is a 1995 graduate of App State’s Bachelor of Arts in English program, with minors in women’s studies and psychology.
Jason Mott
Novelist Jason Mott. Photo by Michael Becker
Mott, a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, has published his poetry and fiction in various literary journals. He was nominated for a 2009 Pushcart Prize, and Entertainment Weekly listed him as one of its 10 “New Hollywood: The Next Wave” people to watch.
Mott is the author of two poetry collections — “We Call This Thing Between Us Love” and “…hide behind me…” — as well as four novels: “The Returned,” “The Wonder of All Things,” “The Crossing,” and his latest work, “Hell of a Book.”
In “Hell of a Book,” which received the 2021 National Book Award, an African American author sets out on a cross-country book tour to promote his bestselling novel. That storyline is the scaffolding of something much larger and more urgent, including the story of Soot, a young Black boy living in a rural town in the recent past, and The Kid, a possibly imaginary child who appears to the author on his tour.
Mott holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in fiction and a Master of Fine Arts in poetry, both from University of North Carolina Wilmington. He lives in southeastern North Carolina.
Spring 2024 schedule
Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series
Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series
Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series
Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series
Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series
Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series
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About the Department of English
The Department of English at Appalachian State University is committed to outstanding work in the classroom, the support and mentorship of students, and a dynamic engagement with culture, history, language, theory and literature. The department offers master’s degrees in English and rhetoric and composition, as well as undergraduate degrees in literary studies, film studies, creative writing, professional writing and English education. Learn more at https://english.appstate.edu.
About the College of Arts and Sciences
The College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) at Appalachian State University is home to 17 academic departments, two centers and one residential college. These units span the humanities and the social, mathematical and natural sciences. CAS aims to develop a distinctive identity built upon our university's strengths, traditions and locations. The college’s values lie not only in service to the university and local community, but through inspiring, training, educating and sustaining the development of its students as global citizens. More than 6,800 student majors are enrolled in the college. As the college is also largely responsible for implementing App State’s general education curriculum, it is heavily involved in the education of all students at the university, including those pursuing majors in other colleges. Learn more at https://cas.appstate.edu.
About Appalachian State University
As a premier public institution, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives. App State is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System, with a national reputation for innovative teaching and opening access to a high-quality, affordable education for all. The university enrolls more than 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and 80 graduate majors at its Boone and Hickory campuses and through App State Online. Learn more at https://www.appstate.edu.
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