Previous Guest Writers

For the last twenty years of his life, poet Robert Frost, a friend of President Wallace Alston, would visit the Agnes Scott campus every spring on his way to Florida, staying for a week or so on campus to give readings, meet with students and faculty, and enjoy spring in Decatur. In the Frost tradition, since 1972 Writers’ Festival guests have come to campus to visit classes, meet with students and faculty, give formal readings and craft talks, and lead workshops for finalists in the festival writing contest. Here is a partial photographic history of the Writers’ Festival and a list of guest writers since the festival began. 
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Jacqueline Goldfinger

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Joy Harjo

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Benjamin Percy

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Junot Diaz

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Martin Espada

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Yusef Komunyaka

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Scott Russell Sanders

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Nathalie Fitzsimmons Anderson

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Joyce Carole Oates

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Rita Dow & Robert Coover

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Paul Muldoon

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Marilyn Nelson

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Wallace Stegner

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Cleanth Brooks

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Robert Frost

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Pearl Cleage

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Bapsi Sidwa

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W.H. Auden

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Jorie Graham & Charles Johnson

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Percival Everett

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Ruben Martinez

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Julia Alvarez

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Anita Desai

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Bo Ball

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Nikki Giovanii

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Jamaica Kincaid

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Chitra Divakaruni

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Jane Smiley

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Suzan-Lori Parks

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Marsha Norman & John Updike

Agnes Scott College Writers’ Festival Guests 1972-to the present

 

1972   May Sarton, Michael Mott, Marion Montgomery

1973   Robert Penn Warren, George Garret

1974   Hollis Summers, Larry Rubin

1975   Richard Eberhardt, Josephine Jacobsen

1976   Reynolds Price, Michael Mott, Nathalie Fitzsimmons Anderson ’70

1977   Eudora Welty, Guy Davenport, Josephine Jacobsen

1978   John Young, Larry Rubin, Josephine Jacobsen

1979   Harry Crews, Donald Davis, Josephine Jacobsen

1980   Howard Nemerov, Josephine Jacobsen

1981   James Merrill, Theodore Weiss, Josephine Jacobsen

1982   Margaret Atwood, Doris Betts, Josephine Jacobsen

1983   Donald Justice, Josephine Jacobsen, Gretchen Schultz

1984   Richard Wilbur, Linda Pastan, Gretchen Schultz, Kay Stevenson

1985   Maxine Kumin, Greg Johnson, Gretchen Schultz

1986   Denise Levertov, Andrew Lytle, Memye Curtis Tucker

1987   Tillie Olsen, Memye Curtis Tucker, Jane Zanca

1988   Michael Harper, Anne Rivers Siddons, Memye Curtis Tucker

1989   James Dickey, Memye Curtis Tucker, Elizabeth Bartlett

1990   Josephine Jacobsen, Alfred Uhry, Memye Curtis Tucker

1991    Gloria Naylor, Sharon Olds, Memye Curtis Tucker

1992   Rita Dove, Robert Coover, Greg Johnson, John Stone, Memye Curtis Tucker

1993   Jorie Graham, Charles Johnson, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Memye Curtis Tucker

1994   Carolyn Forché, Melissa Fay Greene, Lee Abbott, Mary Kratt

1995   Michael Harper, Peter Carey, Julie Kalendek, Memye Curtis Tucker

1996   Alicia Ostriker, Philip Lopate, Joy Williams, Sally Ann Stevens

1997  Jane Smiley, Katha Pollitt, Pearl Cleage, Anjail Rashida Ahmad ’92

1998  Jamaica Kincaid, Thylias Moss, Sherman Yellen

1999   Tim O'Brien, Eavan Boland, Frank Manley, Memye Curtis Tucker

2000   Joyce Carol Oates, Li-Young Lee, Jim Grimsley, Robert Earl Price

2001   John Updike, Marsha Norman, Sharon Olds, Anjail Rashida Ahmad ’92

2002   Marilyn Nelson, Bapsi Sidhwa, Scott Russell Sanders

2003   Julia Alvarez, Greg Williamson, Cary Bynum

2004   Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Bo Ball

2005   Oliver Sacks, Linda Hogan, Caroline Murnane ’00

2006   Paul Muldoon, Percival Everett, Nathalie Fitzsimmons Anderson ’70

2007   Suzan Lori Parks, Yusef Kumanyakaa, Beatriz Rivera-Barnes

2008   Martín Espada, Rubén Martínez, Gillian Lee-Fong ’00

2009   Anita Desai, Junot Diaz, Sabrina Marks

2010   Scott Russell Sanders, Paul Guest, Sarah Scoles

2011   Jennifer Nettles ‘97, Danzy Senna, Arda Collins

2012   Joy Harjo, Benjamin Percy, Jacqueline Pardue Goldfinger ’02

2013   Gish Jen, Cristina Garcia, Anjail Rashida Ahmad ’92