By Cameron McGill, WSU Department of English, WSU Insider
Washington State University’s Visiting Writers Series will bring two acclaimed contemporary authors to campus this spring, offering students and community members the chance to hear from a New Zealand-based poet and performance artist and an award-winning essayist whose work explores memoir, culture, and astrology.
The series will feature Josiah Morgan, a writer and interdisciplinary artist based in Christchurch, New Zealand, and Courtney Ann LaFaive, an essayist and author whose work has been recognized by Best American Essays. Morgan will give a reading April 1 at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Pullman, while LaFaive will appear in a virtual event April 7. Both events are free and open to the public and will be livestreamed on the Visiting Writers Series YouTube page.
Morgan will read from his work Wednesday, April 1, at 5:30 p.m. at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. The event will include a Q&A and book signing following the reading.
Morgan will give a reading April 1 at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Pullman, while LaFaive will appear in a virtual event April 7. Both events are free and open to the public and will be livestreamed on YouTube.
A writer and artist working across literature, theatre, performance art, and curatorial practice, Morgan is the author of three poetry collections, including i’m still growing (Dead Bird Books, 2024). His novella Road: A Postlapsarian Comedy (Feral Dove Books) received the 2022 Macmillan Brown Writers Prize from the University of Canterbury. Morgan is also known for experimental performance projects that blend literature and endurance art, including a performance for Auckland Pride 2024 in which he read his book The Texas Chainsaw Massacre while running a half marathon.
LaFaive will appear in a virtual reading Tuesday, April 7, at 6 p.m.
An essayist and educator, LaFaive is the author of the memoir Daughter in Retrograde (University of Wisconsin Press, 2018) and the chapbook Address Unknown (New Letters, 2025). Her forthcoming book, Follow the Signs: Searching for Linda Goodman, America’s Forgotten Astrology Queen, will be published by the University of Iowa Press in 2026.
Her essays have been listed as notable in the 2020, 2021, and 2023 editions of Best American Essays and have appeared or are forthcoming in publications including The Missouri Review, River Teeth, and Worms Magazine. LaFaive has received a Fulbright Fellowship to Riga, Latvia, and support from organizations including the American-Scandinavian Foundation and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. She is currently an assistant professor of English at the University of North Dakota.
The WSU Visiting Writers Series is supported by collaborators including the WSU Pullman Department of English, the College of Arts and Sciences, WSU Vancouver’s Office of Academic Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences, ASWSU, Landscapes, Academic Outreach and Innovation, and WSU Native American Programs.
More information about upcoming readings can be found on the Visiting Writers Series web page or by contacting Cameron McGill in the WSU Department of English at cameron.mcgill@wsu.edu.