Columbia Writers Series

The college community and the public are invited to the Columbia Writers Series kick off its 2023-24 season with Sindya Bhanoo, recipient of the 2023 Oregon Book Award for Fiction. The free event begins at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 19 in PUB 258 A-B. 

Bhanoo is the author of the story collection Seeking Fortune Elsewhere. She is the 2023 winner of the Oregon Book Award for fiction, the New American Voices Award and an O. Henry Prize.  

Seeking Fortune Elsewhere was a finalist for the Pen/Bingham Award and longlisted for both the Story Prize and the ALA’s Carnegie Medal for Excellence.  

A longtime newspaper reporter, Sindya has worked for The New York Times and The Washington Post. She lives in Corvallis, Oregon and teaches creative writing at Oregon State University. 

The Columbia Writers Series was launched at Clark College in 1988, bringing local, national and international authors to the college and the region. 

Other events featured during the 2023-24 series are: 

• Tuesday, Feb. 13 at 11 a.m.: Anis Mojgani, the tenth Poet Laureate of Oregon. A national and international poetry slam champion, his work has appeared on HBO, NPR and in The New York Times. He is the author of six books of poetry, the opera libretto Sanctuaries, a forthcoming children’s picture book and his latest collection, The Tigers, They Let Me.  

• Monday, April 29 at 11 a.m.: Andrew Leland. His debut book, The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight, about the world of blindness and figuring out his place in it, was published in July 2023 by Penguin Press. His writing has been published in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, McSweeney’s Quarterly, and The San Francisco Chronicle, and more. He is a former host and producer of The Organist, an arts and culture podcast for KCRW. He also has produced segments for Radiolab and 99 Percent Invisible.  
   
• TBD in May: Clark College literary week. A week of literary events both on and off campus to engage the college community and the Southwest Washington community. 

Learn more about the Columbia Writers Series at www.clark.edu/cc/cws.