James Merrill House Writer Series: Recent Episodes
James Merrill House
This literary series is a collection of readings by our James Merrill House Fellows. Our fellows are poets, essayists, fiction and nonfiction writers. The first writers in residence came to the James Merrill House 25 years ago, shortly after James Merrill’s death in 1995. Since then, over 80 writers have stayed in his home, a National Historic Landmark, to work on projects of their own. Thanks to Merrill's generosity, the house now belongs to the Stonington Village Improvement Association and is an ongoing inspiration for writers and poets from around the world.For more information, please visit our website: jamesmerrillhouse.org
James Merrill House Fellow:
Ryan Chapman is a Sri Lankan-American writer originally from Minnesota. He is the author of the novel Riots I Have Known (Simon & Schuster), named a best book of 2019 by Electric Literature and The Marshall Project. His work has appeared online at The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, BookForum, BOMB, Guernica, and The Believer. A recipient of fellowships from Vermont Studio Center and the Millay Colony for the Arts, he lives in Kingston, New York.
Host:
Joanna Scott is the author of twelve works of fiction, and recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, Lannan Literary Award, and a Guggenheim fellowship. Her novel, The Manikin, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her new collection, Excuse Me While I Disappear, is forthcoming from Little, Brown. She was in residence at the James Merrill House in the spring of 2019.
Introducer:
Geoffrey Little is a non-fiction writer on high tech-topics--robotics, space exploration and autonomous vehicles—for Air & Space Smithsonian and other publications. Geoffrey was a documentary television executive on prime-time productions for NOVA, National Geographic, National Audubon, Wall Street Journal TV, PBS and Time Inc. and IMAX.
More information:
About the James Merrill House: jamesmerrillhouse.org
About Ryan: chapmanchapman.net
Coverage about Ryan and this event:
CT Examiner
New London Day
Each year, the Merrill House invites a distinguished member of the writing community to join us as an Invited Merrill Fellow. We were honored to have Carl Phillips join us this year.
About Carl Phillips:
Carl Phillips is an American poet and judge for the Yale Younger Poet Award. Phillips is Professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis, where Merrill’s papers reside. He was named the recipient of the Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets, given in memory of James Merrill. A finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, his other honors include the Lambda Literary Award, an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Theodore Roethke Memorial Foundation Poetry Award, the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Male Poetry, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Library of Congress, and the Academy of American Poets, for which he served as Chancellor from 2006-2012.
About Randy Bean:
Randy Bean is James Merrill House co-chair. He is Founder and CEO of NewVantage Partners, a nationally known management consulting firm, and is a regular contributor to Forbes, Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, and The Wall Street Journal. Randy holds a BA from Washington University in St. Louis, where he sits on the board of the College of Arts & Sciences and sat on the board of the University Libraries, where James Merrill’s papers reside
More information:
James Merrill House
Carl Phillips' poetry:
Yale Series of Younger Poets