All events free and open to the public.

Each semester, established and emerging authors visit American University and commune with students, faculty, and the public. All events are free and open to the public. Past authors include: Min Jin Lee, Jacqueline Woodson, Carmen Maria Machado, and Rebecca Makkai.

2025-2026 Series

Tania JamesOctober 15, 7:00, SIS Founders Room
 

Tania James is the author of the novels The Tusk That Did the Damage and Atlas of Unknowns and the short story collection Aerogrammes. Her most recent novel Loot was longlisted for the 2023 National Book Award and the Carol Shields Prize. She is a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow in fiction and an associate professor of English at George Mason University.

Emily BazelonNovember 12, 7:00, SIS Founders Room
 

Emily Bazelon is a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine and the Truman Capote Fellow for Creative Writing at Yale Law School. The author of two nonfiction books, Charged and Sticks & Stones, Bazelon’s work explores all facets of the criminal justice system, from perpetrator to victim, prosecutor to public defender; she is also co-host of the long-running Political Gabfest podcast on Slate.

David MeansDecember 5, 7:00, SIS Founders Room
 

David Means is the author of six short-story collections, including Two Nurses, Smoking; Instructions for a Funeral; The Spot—a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; Assorted Fire Events—winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction; and The Secret Goldfish. His novel Hystopia was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. A Guggenheim Fellow and three-time winner of the O. Henry Prize, he is a professor at Vassar College.

Patricia CoralApril 1, 2026, 7:00, SIS Founders Room
 

Patricia Coral is the author of the memoir Women Surrounded by Water, longlisted for the 2024 National Book Critics Circle Award in Autobiography. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from American University, where she received the Myra Sklarew Award and where she was Editor-in-Chief of FOLIO Literary Journal. She has contributed to numerous literary magazines and her work has been supported by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

Recent Visiting Writers

• Min Jin Lee by Elena Seibert.
• Carmen Maria Machado by Art Streiber.
• Jacqueline Woodson by Sharif Hamza.
• Rebecca Makkai by Brett Simison.