Lydia Conklin: A Reading

Lydia Conklin (they/them) is the author of the short story collection Rainbow, a collection of stories that celebrates the humor and depth of the queer and trans experience and works to engage elements not typically represented in queer literature, including liminal or uncertain identities, queer conception, and queer joy.

They currently serve as an Assistant Professor of Fiction at Vanderbilt University and previously held the Helen Zell Visiting Professor position in Fiction at the University of Michigan.

They've received a Stegner Fellowship in Fiction at Stanford University, a Rona Jaffe Writer's Award, three Pushcart Prizes, a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation, a Creative & Performing Arts Fulbright to Poland, work-study and tuition scholarships from Bread Loaf, and fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, Djerassi, Hedgebrook, the James Merrill House, the Vermont Studio Center, VCCA, Millay, Jentel, Lighthouse Works, Brush Creek, the Santa Fe Art Institute, Caldera, the Sitka Center, and Harvard University, among others. They were the 2015-2017 Creative Writing Fellow in fiction at Emory University.

Their fiction has appeared in Tin House, American Short Fiction, The Southern Review, The Gettysburg Review, and The Paris Review. They have drawn graphic fiction for Lenny Letter, Drunken Boat, and the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago and cartoons for The New Yorker and Narrative Magazine.

Following their reading, Lydia will offer a Q&A and book signing.

This event will take pace in the Milligan Room of Slocum Hall, and it is free and open to the public.