Author Archives: roleyb

The 2025 McComb Conference: Love & Recovery


The Miami University Creative Writing Program is hosting the 2025 Marianne D. McComb Creative Writing Conference, with the theme this year of Love & Recovery, on Friday, April 25th at Harris Hall. Award-winning authors will present and lead generative writing workshops on nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. The conference keynote speaker is Leslie Jamison, New York Times best-selling author of Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story, her memoir. Register now. Conference schedule.  Students and community members from across the university (and beyond!) are invited to participate,including students’ proposals to present a scholarly paper on a student panel or read creative work related to the theme (submit). This one day conference features writing sessions by authors Leslie Jamison, distinguished poet Felicia Zamora, and novelist Conner Bassett. Register by March 21st at 5 pm.

All registrants receive free swag and food throughout the conference day and a 1-day parking pass is available via registration. Free t-shirt for readers and presenters. See you then! 

Spring Street MFA Reading Series

Harris Hall, 150

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500 Harris Drive, Oxford OH 45056 #SpringStreet

The Spring Street Reading Series features graduate student writers from Miami University’s Creative Writing MFA program and is held monthly throughout the academic year. The following is the anticipated schedule and designated readers. 

Fall Semester: Harris Hall (Room 150) 

  • October SpringStreet Reading (Tuesday Oct. 15th @ 7:15 PM): Dominik Gebell, Maddie Portune, Tanushree Mukherjee, & Anna Richard 
  • WRITER’S HARVEST Annual Reading and Art Auction fundraising event for hunger (all proceeds go directly to our local food pantry TOPSS)  (on ZOOM: Tuesday Nov. 19th @ 7-8 PM): Kyle Williams, James Foss, Emma Rowan, & Kayla Belser. On ZOOM: https://miamioh.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAvc-6vqjoiH9QNvM1EzRPMFnwNKn-FcZ5p 

Spring Semester: Harris Hall (Room 150) 

  • February Spring Street Reading (Tuesday Feb. 11th @ 7:15 PM): Hossein Sobhani, CC Webb, Samantha Stahlhut, &  Jordyn Damato 
  • March SpringStreet Reading (Tuesday Mar. 11th @ 7:15 PM): Cody Tieman, Candace Renicks, Mary Newton, & Chris Bowyer 
  • April Spring Street Reading (Tuesday Apr. 15th @ 7:15 PM): Ross Kohler, Ria Adams, Ana Eliza de Melo Garcia, & Joshua Konecke 

Writers Harvest – Annual Reading and Art Auction for Hunger Charity Event

Please join us on Zoom for a good cause!

When: Nov 19, 2024 7 PM via Zoom.

ALL proceeds go to our local food pantry, TOPPS.

You can donate on their website now! (Please designate Writers Harvest).

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://miamioh.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAvc-6vqjoiH9QNvM1EzRPMFnwNKn-FcZ5p

Hosted by Director of Creative Writing Brian Ascalon Roley and Western Center artist Billy Simms, it features short readings from four excellent MFA students and an art auction


When: Nov 19, 2024 7 PM

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://miamioh.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAvc-6vqjoiH9QNvM1EzRPMFnwNKn-FcZ5p

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. 

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Miami University Press Poetry Reading by Distinguished Irish Poet & Editor Randolph Healy

When? Thursday, November 14, 2024.6pm.

 Register to attend the Zoom! 


Miami University Press is proud to present a Zoom reading on Thursday, November 14th from 6-7:30PM EST by distinguished Irish poet and editor Randolph Healy, author of books including The Electron-Ghost Casino (Miami University Press, 2024) and Green 532: Selected Poems 1983-2000 (Salt, 2002). 

Healy will be introduced by recent Miami MFA graduate Sean Pierson, author of The Perfect Season (Wild Honey Press, 2024).

Comprising forty-nine units, with a bespoke porch and optional exit through a bestiary, Randolph Healy’s The Electron-Ghost Casino has a décor ranging from the cerebral (all percentiles included) to the earthy. Notes of horror, intimacy, fractured histories, and joy echo from its chambers. Healy is the author of Green 532: Selected Poems 1983-2000 (Salt 2002) and other books and chapbooks celebrated by readers throughout the Anglophone poetry world. This is his first American book publication. Are some of his tunes unfamiliar?  Don’t worry, or do. We may be out of time, but there’s still space. Dance.

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Author Reading & Discussion with Pepper Stetler & Nicholas P. Money – Memoir, Disability Studies & Science Writing.

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Memoir, disability studies, & science writing– please join us for a nonfiction reading by Miami faculty, followed by a Q&A about the craft of creative nonfiction writing!

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Biology professor Nik Money and Art History professor Pepper Stetler will read and discuss their new nonfiction books Thursday, November 7 at 7:30 in Harris Hall 150. 

Stetler’s new book, A Measure of Intelligence: One Mother’s Reckoning with the IQ Test, has been described as “an important and illuminating contribution to disability studies.” (Daisy Hernandez)

Molds, Mushrooms, and Medicines: Our Lifelong Relationship with Fungi, by Nicholas Money, showcases, with great humor and deftness, “An amazing tour of the world of fungi–a realm that is more entwined with the lives of humans than we realize.” (Alanna Collen)

Creative Writing faculty TaraShea Nesbit and Margaret Luongo will interview the authors after their readings, followed by a Q&A on the craft of nonfiction writing with the audience. 

Hope to see you there!

More info:

https://events.miamioh.edu/event/author-reading-and-discussion-pepper-stetler-nicholas-money

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Author Bios

Pepper Stetler is a Professor of Art History at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and writes extensively on issues facing people with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers. She is the author of A Measure of Intelligence: One Mother’s Reckoning with the IQ Test (Diversion Books). Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Slate and other venues.

Nicholas Money is a Professor of Biology and Western Program Director at Miami University. He is an international expert on fungal biology and author of popular science books that celebrate the microbial world including The Rise of Yeast: How the Sugar Fungus Shaped Civilization (Oxford University Press) and Molds, Mushrooms, and Medicine: Our Lifelong Relationship with Fungi (Princeton University Press). His writing is noted for blending first-rate science with stories of human interest. Learn more about Money and his works on his website, www.themycologist.com

Alumni Event: Life After College with an English Degree – A Gustche Lecture with Patrick Briggs

Please join us

Join us in welcoming creative writing alumnus and tech CEO Patrick Briggs ’06, who will be giving a talk about how an English degree can bring career success!

The lecture will be held in Harris Hall (500 Harris Drive) on Thursday, October 24th at 4:30 PM in room 111A. A reception will follow. 

Patrick Briggs is the CEO of Semify, a white-label digital marketing service provider. Prior to joining Semify, Patrick was an entrepreneurial leader for startups and technology companies in Silicon Valley and New York City. Over the last fourteen years, Patrick has driven nine-figure revenue growth by leading marketing, sales, product positioning, cost optimizations, and strategic development in consumer-packaged goods businesses, customization and promotional printing businesses, business-to-business technology and software businesses, and business-to-business and business-to-consumer insurance products. Patrick holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, a BA in English: Creative Writing with a minor in Anthropology from Miami University, and the Boy Scouts of America rank of Eagle Scout.

This event is sponsored in part by the Department of English, the Center for Career Services and Success, and the Marilyn Gustche Lectureship Fund. 

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Rita Dove Alumni Event for National Poetry Month

Join us for a special event with Rita Dove, Miami University creative writing alumna, Pulitzer Prize winner and National Poet Laureate Emeritus

Alumna poet Rita Dove will join us virtually for a reading and conversation including creative writing poetry faculty in the Heritage Room, Shriver Center. You can check out a recent Paris Review Interview of the US Poet Laureate Emeritus and Pulitzer Prize winner in which she speaks about her time at Miami and its influence on her.

You can find our Alumni testimonials page here.