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College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Department of English

Literary Readings and Contests

NC State Literary Readings Spring 2025

Elaine Neil Orr

Thursday, February 6, 6:00 PM Caldwell Hall Lounge, Caldwell Hall (map)

Elaine Neil Orr was born and grew up among the forests and rivers of Southwestern Nigeria. After settling in North Carolina as a literature professor, she turned to creative writing. She first published a memoir, Gods of Noonday, followed by two novels, A Different Sun and Swimming Between Worlds, finalist for the 2019 Phillip H. McMath Post-Publication Book Award in fiction. Dancing Woman is her third novel.

Elaine has received numerous prizes and awards, including most recently the 2023 John Ehle Prize and the 2021 Denny C. Plattner Award in Creative Writing. She is Professor of English at North Carolina State University. She also serves on the faculty of the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her husband, Andy, and their beloved pup, Sam.

Mesha Maren (Fiction)

Thursday, February 27, 7:00 PM Caldwell Hall Lounge, Caldwell Hall (map)

Mesha Maren is the author of the novels Sugar Run, Perpetual West,and Shae. She is an Associate Professor of the Practice of English at Duke University.

Oliver Baez Bendorf and NC State Poetry Awards (Poetry)

Thursday, April 3, 7:00 PM Caldwell Hall Lounge, Caldwell Hall (map)

Oliver Baez Bendorf is an award-winning poet whose work explores themes of interconnectedness, transformation, and queer liberation. He is the author of Consider the Rooster (Nightboat Books, 2024), Advantages of Being Evergreen, and The Spectral Wilderness. His poems have appeared in publications such as The Nation, American Poetry Review, and Yale Review, and have been featured in anthologies like Latino Poetry and Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics. Recognized with a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and a Publishing Triangle Award, Oliver earned his BA from the University of Iowa and both an MFA in Poetry and an MA in Library and Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Born and raised in Iowa City, Iowa, he now resides along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains and teaches in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.

MFA Graduate Reading

Wednesday, April 9, 7:00 PM Caldwell Hall Lounge, Caldwell Hall (map)