Emerson Whitney is the author of Heaven (McSweeny’s 2020) and Ghost Box (Timeless Infinite Light, 2014). Emerson teaches in the BFA creative writing program at Goddard College and is a postdoctoral fellow in gender studies at the University of Southern California.

According to Sarah Neilson in 15 of the Most Anticipated Books by LGBTQ Authors For the First Half of 2020, “This gorgeous, short memoir, written by poet and Goddard College teacher Emerson Whitney, has been compared to Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts, and with good reason. Its genre-bending structure and lyrical, intellectual, sensuous lines remind of that other pillar of proof that poets write some of the best memoir (and fiction). But genre categorization defies the heart of the book, as does any comparison to other writers—Heaven stands alone, and like any brainy-but-feely work that engages with queer theory, it questions everything. This includes what a self even is and what, how, and who shapes our views of the world and of self as we grow up. Melodic and engagingly written, Heaven will enrapture anyone who loves reading for beauty and intellectual challenge at once.”

Sunday, March 1, 8:00 pm – 9:00 pm, Haybarn Theatre

Free and open to the public.

Sponsored by the Undergraduate Studies Program.