Visiting Author Series

The Visiting Author Series was established in 2011 in partnership with the Arlington County Public Library’s Arlington Reads initiative. The series is part of the first-year composition program housed in the Department of Literature and Languages. The featured author and his/her works are incorporated into the program curriculum each spring.

Kiese Laymon (2022)

Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, author of Heavy: An American Memoir

Reginald Dwayne Betts (2022)

Guggenheim and Macarthur Fellow, author of Felon

Valeria Luiselli (2020)

Los Angeles Times Book Prize and American Book Award winner, author of Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions

Mary Karr (2019)

New York Times bestseller and PEN/Martha Albrand Award-winning memoir,
The Liar’s Club 

Katherine Boo (2018)

National Book Award for Nonfiction and Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity

Elizabeth Strout (2017)

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Olive Kitteridge 

Julie Otsuka (2016)

American Library Association’s Alex Award and the Asian American Literary Award, When the Emperor Was Divine 

Jesmyn Ward (2015)

Two-time National Book Award winner, author of Men We Reaped

Richard Ford (2014)

Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sportswriter

Junot Diaz (2013)

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Jennifer Egan (2012)

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, A Visit from the Goon Squad

Tim O’Brien (2011)

National Book Award Winner for his collection of stories, The Things They Carried