Sponsored by the School of Arts and Humanities, the Marcia Kinsey Visiting Writers Series brings award-winning writers to campus to read from their work, talk about their writing, and interact with our students.
Both the St. Edward's and the larger Austin community benefit from the novelists, poets, and playwrights who come to campus. These working artists inspire students and add dimension to professors' curriculum. For more information about the Marcia Kinsey Visiting Writers Series, please contact Professor Sasha West or Professor Mary Helen Specht.
Octavio Quintanilla
Thursday, September 24, 2025 at 6pm
Carter Auditorium (JBWS 186)
Octavio Quintanilla is the 2025 Texas Poet Laureate and author of the poetry collections If I Go Missing (Slough Press) and The Book of Wounded Sparrows (Texas Review Press), which was long-listed for the National Book Award, a finalist for the Juan Felipe Herrera Best Poetry Book Award, and a 2026 Finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Most recently, he published Las Horas Imposibles / The Impossible Hours (University of Arizona Press), winner of the 2024 Ambroggio Prize from the Academy of American Poets and winner of the Burdine C. Johnson Award for Best Book of Poetry from the Texas Institute of Letters. Octavio is the founder and director of the literature & arts festival VersoFrontera and publisher of Alabrava Press. He was recently inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters.
Mary Helen Specht
Saturday, November 7, 2025 at 3pm
Carter Auditorium (JBWS 186)
Mary Helen Specht is the author of the novel Mudlark and the novel Migratory Animals, a New York Times Editors' Choice and winner of the Texas Institute of Letters Best First Fiction Award and the Writers’ League of Texas Fiction Prize. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Prairie Schooner, and numerous other publications. A Fulbright Scholar to Nigeria and Dobie-Paisano Writing Fellow, Specht currently teaches creative writing at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas, where she lives with her family. She was recently inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters.
Spring poet to be announced late fall
Date to be announced 6pm
Carter Auditorium (JBWS 186)
Poet bio to be announced in late fall.
Spring fiction reader to be announced late fall
Date to be announced 6pm
Carter Auditorium (JBWS 186)
Fiction writer bio to be announced in late fall.
Visiting Writers
Previous Visiting Writers Series speakers include:
- Kazim Ali
- Eula Biss
- Timothy Braun
- Jericho Brown
- Oscar Caseres
- Cyrus Cassells
- Ana Castillo
- Jennifer Chang
- Denise Chavez
- Lucille Clifton
- Natalie Diaz
- Steven Dietz
- Doug Dorst
- Jennifer duBois
- Nathan Englander
- Tarfia Faizullah
- David Wright Faladé
- Carrie Fountain
- Ben Fountain
- Jonathan Safran Foer
- Raul Garza
- Elisa Gonzalez
- Jorie Graham
- Virginia Grise
- Joy Harjo
- Terrance Hayes
- Marie Howe
- Amanda Johnston
- A Van Jordan
- Phillip Levine
- Ada Limón
- Valeria Luiselli
- Karan Mahajan
- Sarah Manguso
- Nina McConigley
- Elizabeth McCracken
- Erika Meitner
- Dinaw Mengestu
- Debra Monroe
- Dinty Moore
- Tomás Q. Morín
- Naomi Shihab Nye
- Lisa Olstein
- Emily Pérez
- Emmy Pérez
- Alejandro Puyana
- Roger Reeves
- Antonio Ruiz-Camacho
- Karen Russell
- Jaymes Sanchez
- Jason Schneiderman
- Chaitali Sen
- Diane Seuss
- ire'ne lara silva
- Gary Soto
- Natalia Sylvester
- Justin Torres
- Deb Olin Unferth
- Jean Valentine
- Jesús I. Valles
- Derek Walcott
- Sasha West
- Monica Wood
- Tiphanie Yanique
- Dean Young
- Jenny Tinghui Zhang