On Jan. 24, Ringling College will welcome Cooper Levey-Baker to campus to share his experiences as a journalist and novelist and to kick off the spring semester’s Visiting Writers Forum.
Faculty, staff, students, and community members are invited to attend the event which will be held from 7-8 pm in the Goldstein Library (room 113) and is free and open to the public.
Levey-Baker (he/him) is the first of several speakers who will come to campus this spring as part of the Visiting Writers Forum, hosted by the Creative Writing Department at Ringling College. His fiction has appeared in the Sierra Nevada Review and Burrow Press’s Fantastic Floridas series, and his journalism has won multiple awards from the Florida Magazine Association and the Florida Society for Professional Journalism. Dead Fish Wind is his first novel. He has also written for Ringling College of Art and Design.
The series is a critical part of the academic program for Creative Writing students at Ringling College. The series is underwritten by a generous grant from the Isermann Family Foundation.
Prior to each forum, students in the Creative Writing program will read samples of each author’s work before attending the reading and talk. Students will also have the opportunity to talk with each author to discover the various blueprints for success as a writer directly from successful, working writers in the field.
As Dr. Ryan Van Cleave, professor and head of Creative Writing has previously emphasized, “Since our major is industry-focused, we make sure to talk about that as well as explore issues of craft with every Visiting Writers Forum guest. Having an unapologetic focus on the industry is just one of the key differences here. Our goal is to prepare every Creative Writing major to thrive after graduation. Learning about the different career blueprints of the successful writers the series brings in helps our students imagine their own futures more clearly.”
Visiting professionals include poets, graphic novelists, newspaper editors, literary agents, screenwriters, and novelists.
Other speakers this spring include:
Ken Hite
Feb. 21, 7-8 pm, Goldstein Library 113
For more than 20 years, Ken Hite (he/him) has worked as a full-time writer and role-playing game designer, contributing to many popular games including GURPS, Mage: The Ascension, Savage Worlds, and the Star Trek role-playing game. He’s the author of Trail of Cthulhu and Night’s Black Agents role-playing games, and he serves as lead designer on the 5th edition of Vampire: The Masquerade. Since 2012, he’s run Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff, a weekly podcast with fellow author and game designer Robin Laws.
In addition, Hite is Ringling College’s Creative Writing 2023 Writer in Residence and will be a guest expert in the Anyone’s Game Tabletop Game Design Conference.
Ryan Rivas
March 21, 7-8 pm, Goldstein Library 113
Ryan Rivas (he/him) is the author of Nextdoor in Colonialtown (Autofocus 2022). He is the Publisher of Burrow Press, and the Coordinator of MFA Publishing at Stetson University’s MFA of the Americas creative writing program. A Macondo Writers Workshop fellow, his work has appeared in The Believer, The Rumpus, Literary Hub, Best American Nonrequired Reading 2012, and elsewhere.
Sarah N. Fisk
April 18, 7-8 pm, Goldstein Library 113
Sarah N. Fisk (they/them) is a former mechanical engineer who made the switch to publishing in 2011. They have worked in the publishing industry as an editorial assistant, author’s assistant, publicist, and art director. Fisk is a former Pitch Wars mentor, board member, and Agent Liaison. They host the podcast Queries, Qualms, & Quirks and have a passion for spreadsheets. In addition to serving as a literary agent at Tobias Literary Agency, Fisk writes YA novels as Sarah Nicolas and romance under the name Aria Kane.
Community members attending the event in person should park in a visitor parking space on campus. Registration is not required for those who plan to attend in person. Those who would like to receive event reminders, should sign up online.
