The Schlesinger Visiting Writers

Established in 1999 by a gift from Richard and Sheila Schlesinger in honor of their son, a talented young writer who was dedicated to the pursuit of his craft, The John Christophe Schlesinger Visiting Writer Series provides a crucial and generative forum for the rich intellectual life of Yale’s Department of English.  Each year, acclaimed authors of distinctive energy and imagination—from poets to screenwriters, from novelists to journalists—are brought to campus through the auspices of this series in order to give a public reading and to meet with student writers in a variety of settings.  Through these events, students can experience firsthand the fact that literature is not a tradition of the past, but is an active, living practice by which to explore and discover the possibilities of the world.

2023-2024

Phillip Lopate
April Bernard
Sigrid Nunez

2022-2023

 

2020-2021

Natasha Trethewey

2019-2020

Karen Russell

2018-2019

Jennifer Egan (with John Hersey Fund)
Robert Pinsky (Foundational Courses Reading)
 

2017-2018

Peter Straub
Rita Dove (Foundational Courses Reading)
 

2016-2017

John Ashbery
Susan Howe
Ben Lerner

2015-2016

Phil Klay
Ha Jin

2014-2015

John Sayles
Terry Tempest Williams
Claudia Rankine
Paul Auster

2013-2014

Chris Ware
Tracy K. Smith
David Mitchell

2012-2013

Jamaica Kincaid

2011-2012

Adam Gopnik
Chris Abani
Amitav Ghosh

2010-2011

Lydia Davis
Kevin Young
Alison Bechdel

2009-2010

Junot Díaz
Calvin Trillin

2008-2009

Gay Talese
Michael Pollan
Edward Jones

2006-2007

John McFee
Dave Eggers
Ian McEwan

2005-2006

Ian Frazier
Stephen Sondheim
W.S. Merwin

2004-2005

Jhumpa Lahiri
Norman Mailer
Lorrie Moore
Mark Strand

2003-2004

Joan Didion
Caryl Phillips

2002-2003

Peter Matthiessen
Edna O’Brien

2001-2002

Malcolm Gladwell
Colson Whitehead

1999-2000

Tracy Kidder
Tobias Wolf