Visitors

Welcome to Writers' Forum...

Pratt Institute's bi-weekly reading series and discussion seminar specifically for students in the Writing Program. Though the series is curated by faculty directors, the Writers' Forum readings are fundamentally student-run. The writing majors in the course are responsible for researching, introducing, and engaging in discussion the working writers and editors who present, perform, and/or speak about their work.

To our advantage, New York City is the center of North American publishing and the home to various, dynamic literary communities old and new, and this forum is an extension of the living literature that finds its audience here. Writers' Forum is a place to consider the ideas, motivations, methodologies, and careers of both local and visiting writers—among them essayists, novelists, poets, journalists, playwrights, screenwriters, editors, translators, critics, and performers—and to join in thoughtful conversations about writing with professionals in the field.

Attending the Forum

While discussion groups are reserved for students enrolled in the coure, Writers' Forum readings are free and open to the public. Readings are held on Wednesdays from 12:30-1:50 PM in Pratt Institute's Engineering Building, room number 371. Please refer to the calendar at left for the semester's schedule of readings. Each reading concludes with an open question and answer session. Books are occasionally for sale.
Directions to Pratt Institute
Campus Map

Past Readers Include:

Alice Notely, Michael Kimball, Doug Anderson, Joshua Ferris, Laura Miller, Sasha Frere-Jones, Susanna Moore, Jeffrey McDaniel, Jim Lewis, Anne Landsman, Tao Lin, David Hollander, Hannah Marcus, Aleksandr Skidan, Max Winter, Ralph Arlyck, Vijay Seshadri, Noy Holland, Sam Michel, William Finnegan, Sean Wilsey, Gabriel Cohen, Mary Gaitskill, Amanda Stern, Karrell Roxas, Anna Holmes, Dara Wier, Steve Almond, Kurt Andersen, Starlee Kine, Stephen Rodefer, Albert Mobilio, Eric Banks, Robert Lopez, Eileen Myles, Monique Truong, Wayne Koestenbaum, John Reed, Paul Brill, Elissa Schappell, Robert Spillman, Peter Markus, William Corbett, Ed Barrett, Eric Konigsberg, Ariel Levy, Rachel Cohen, Cole Swensen, Siri Hustvedt, Joe Garden, Alphonso Lingis, Noelle Kocot, Gary Lutz, Jonathan Ames, David McAleavey, Maureen Cummins, Kenneth Goldsmith, Heather Rogers, David Ohle, Franck André Jamme, Jen Banbury, Robert Sullivan, Wayne Koestenbaum, Samantha Gillison, David Hajdu, Claudia Rankine, Karen Brennan, Lynne Tillman, Robert Sietsema, Stacy Doris, Aaron Kunin, Van Jordan, Tom Spanbauer, Rich Maxwell, Akhil Sharma, Laurie Palmer, Dara Wier, John Freitas, Matthew Rohrer, Joshua Beckman, Brian Evenson, Jonathan Green, Cathy Park Hong, Daniel Nestor, Amy Kellner, Nathalie Stephens, Prageeta Sharma, Heather McGowan, Hannah Tinti, Kamila Shamsie, Lytle Shaw, Elaine Sexton, John Edgar Wideman, Lucie Brock-Broido, Lisa Jarnot, A. Alcalay, Kurt Andersen, Alissa Quart, Marjorie Welish, Samantha Hunt, Bhanu Kapil Rider, Thalia Field, Juliana Spahr, Brenda Coultas, Douglas A. Martin, and many other fine writers.

Former Directors Include:

Jen Bervin, Brian Blanchfield, Christian Hawkey, Melissa Buzzeo, Elizabeth Stark, and Lisa Carl.