Gabriel DeBettencourt
Connector Contributor

The English Department will be hosting this year’s Writers on Campus event on Nov. 28 at O’Leary Library Room 222 at 5:00 p.m. For this year, the event will have writers and poets David Rivard and Rebecca Morgan Frank reading their own work and will meet with students after discussing their work for a Q&A-like session.

When the Writers on Campus event first started in 2011, it opened a window of opportunity for emerging writers and poets to read aloud to an unfamiliar crowd as Sandra Lim, one of the organizers of the event, mentioned about its purpose. This is not just limited to UMass Lowell students as it is open to the public to read and listen to the guest readers invited to the event.

The program, sponsored by the English Department and organized by professors Lim and Maggie Dietz, has been very successful since it was first conceived five years ago after a string of successful poetry readings in the spring of 2011.

“In the beginning, the event had much energy as it was something new,” said Lim. “Now it’s a known thing as it gains interest each year.”

For emerging writers, it is a welcoming chance to emerge into the public eye and express themselves to others they have never met as well as meeting featured guests readers. The program enjoyed the presence of past readers such as poets Robert Pinsky, Claudia Rankine, Marilyn Chin and Tyehimba Jess.

“I am looking forward to meeting and talking to all of the student writers in the program,” said Frank. “It will be such a wonderful opportunity to inspire students pursuing in this field.” Frank is also looking forward to reading alongside with Rivard whose work she has long admired as well as published work in her literary magazine, Memorious.org.

For more information about the Writers on Campus event, both professors Dietz and Lim can be reached by email: Sandra_Lim@uml.edu and Maggie_Dietz@uml.edu.