Central Washington University announced on April 8 that poet, editor, and naturalist Elizabeth Bradfield will visit the campus for the Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series on April 21. The event will take place in the Multicultural Center in Black Hall and is open to both university members and the Ellensburg community.
The Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series brings established writers to CWU for readings and discussions. This series provides students and community members with opportunities to engage with notable literary figures.
Bradfield is scheduled to present two free events: a craft talk, question-and-answer session, and book signing at noon; followed by a reading, Q&A, and book signing at 5:30 p.m. Both sessions are available in person or online via Zoom with pre-registration required for virtual attendance. Recordings of both presentations will also be made available.
During her visit, Bradfield will read from her recent works including “SOFAR: Poems,” “Interpretive Work”—which won the Audre Lorde Prize in Lesbian Poetry—and “Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry,” which received a Pacific Northwest Book Award. Students attending either event in person can enter a drawing for one of five copies of “Cascadia Field Guide.” Maya Jewell Zeller, Professor of English at CWU, said that “as clearly as Bradfield’s work is rooted in careful attention to the non-human world, it sings also to that embodied sixth-sense mystery that wants to rise up through us as human animals. Her powerful work is the kind that calls us all in.”
Bradfield has an extensive background as founder and editor-in-chief of Broadsided—a project integrating art with literature—and draws inspiration from her experiences as a naturalist and marine educator. She grew up in Tacoma but now lives on Cape Cod.
Other upcoming guests for this year’s Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series include creative nonfiction author Nora Wendl on May 5 and novelist Sonora Jha on May 26. Questions about the series can be directed to Dr. Candace Walsh at CWU.