Literary Arts Live celebrates the diverse vitalities of contemporary literature.

Bates has a long tradition of welcoming poets and authors to read from their work. In 1932 William Butler Yeats read from his poetry in the Chapel. From the 50s through the 80s, Bates professor-poet John Tagliabue brought many distinguished writers to campus, including Allen Ginsberg and Gwendolyn Brooks. First established as Language Arts Live in 1991 by senior lecturer emeritus Robert Farnsworth, the series has now hosted readings, class visits, and residencies by over 100 authors, among them Nobel Laureates Seamus Heaney and Derek Walcott, and Pulitzer Prize winners Richard Ford, Tyehimba Jess, Donald Justice, Yusef Komunyakaa, Paul Muldoon, Richard Russo, Tracy K. Smith, Elizabeth Strout, and Colson Whitehead. Recent Bates alums have also returned to read from their prize-winning books: Jessica Anthony, Christian Barter, Christina Chiu, Gabriel Fried, and Craig Teicher.

Literary Arts Live events are made possible from the generous support of the English Department, the John Tagliabue Fund, and the Learning Associates Fund. All events are wheelchair accessible, open to the public, and free of charge. For questions about our series, please contact Peter Philbin at pphilbin@bates.edu.

For more on the Arts at Bates, visit this page.

Upcoming Reading

Virginia Konchan
Thursday 03/12 @7pm
Muskie Archives 201

Virginia Konchan is the author of five books of poetry, Requiem (Carnegie Mellon
University Press, 2025); Bel Canto (Carnegie Mellon, 2022); Hallelujah Time (Véhicule
Press, 2021); Any God Will Do (Carnegie Mellon, 2020); and The End of Spectacle
(Carnegie Mellon, 2018). She has received fellowships from the Amy Clampitt Poet
Residency Program and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Her poems have
appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Atlantic, among other journals.