A Word About The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing

The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing is the organization on Arizona State University's campus that HFR calls home. The building itself is in the old president's house, which means those of us lucky to work inside have our own kitchen and a reputed ghost, who has never shown her see-through face to me.

The Center does a lot of great things for ASU, for the Phoenix area, and for writers and readers in general, which is why I'm mentioning it to you blog readers. In addition to supporting the graduate students in the MFA Program at ASU, the Piper Center offers community events, classes and programs. Here are some things to check out.

Our Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference is held every year in winter, when Arizona still feels like spring. This year's conference faculty includes Steve Almond, Brock Clarke, Martha Collins, Bernard Cooper, Percival Everett, Carolyn Forche, Alice Sebold, Natasha Tretheway and many others. The three-day conference is filled with readings, panels and classes. And also a Dunk-An-Agent booth. Not really, but there will be agents.

Our Piper Writers Studio is a series of in-person and online writing workshops in everything from romance writing to screenwriting to poetry. Fall 2008 classes are enrolling now.

Our Distinguished Visiting Writers Series brings fantastic writers to the Phoenix area every year. Upcoming visitors include Chang-rae Lee, Jane Smiley, Charles Simic and Luis Valdez.

We also have an Online Book Club wherein readers from around the world get to talk to each other. About books!

And, finally, we have another fabulous publication (edited by yours truly) that features articles and interviews about writers and writing. See the current version of Marginalia here. It has a fantastic article by HFR contributor John W. Evans called "Something Like Faith," about writing poetry in a time of grief.

If you have questions about any Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing programs or events, please email us at pipercenter.info@asu.edu.