Virtual Fred Ewing Case and Lola Case Writers-in-Residence Set for Nov. 12
The Western Illinois University Department of English will host a virtual version of the Fred Ewing Case and Lola Case Writers-in-Residence Thursday, Nov. 12.
This year’s writers include Tiffany Quay Tyson, Hillary Leftwich and Rebecca Roanhorse. A question and answer session will be held at 3 p.m. over Zoom. To get the event link, email Professor Erika Wurth a et-wurth@wiu.edu. A reading will be held at 5 p.m. via Facebook Live on the WIU Department of English Facebook page.
•Tyson is a native of Jackson, MS. She is the author of two novels, “The Past is Never” and “Three Rivers.” She is the recipient of the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Fiction and the Mississippi Author Award as selected by the Mississippi Library Association for her novel “The Past is Never.” She is a graduate of Delta State 
University. After college, she worked for a brief stint as a newspaper reporter in the Mississippi Delta, where she received the Frank Allen Award for Journalism. She is the recipient of two Heartland Emmy Awards, including one for writing for a children’s Public Television program. She is a faculty member at Lighthouse Writers Workshop and the Lighthouse Young Writers Program. She lives, writes and teaches in Denver, CO.
•Leftwich is the author of “Ghosts Are Just Strangers Who Know How to Knock,” which is featured in Entropy’s Best Fiction list of 2019. She is the poetry and prose editor for Heavy Feather Review, runs At the Inkwell Denver, which is a monthly reading series, and teaches at Lighthouse Writers. Her writing can be found, or is forthcoming, in print and online in The Rumpus, Entropy, The Missouri Review, The Denver Quarterly, Hobart, Smokelong Quarterly and others. She will be attending the Keyon Review’s Writers Workshop for nonfiction. She lives in Colorado with her partner, her son, and their cat, Larry.
•Roanhorse is a New York Times bestselling and Nebula, Hugo and Locus Award-winning speculative fiction writer and the recipient of the 2018 Astounding (Campbell) Award for Best New Writer. Her novel “Trail of Lightning” (Book 1 in the Sixth World Series) won the Locus Award for Best First Novel and is a Nebula, Hugo and World Fantasy finalist. It was also selected as an Amazon, B&N, Library Journal, and NPR Best Books of 2018, among others. Book 2 in the Sixth World Series, Storm of Locusts, has received starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Booklist and has been named an Amazon, Powell’s, and Audible Best of 2019. Her novel, “Resistance Reborn,” is part of Star Wars: Journey to The Rise of Skywalker and a USA Today and NYTimes bestseller. Her middle grade novel, “Race to the Sun,” for the Rick Riordan Present’s imprint will release in January 2020, and an epic fantasy novel will follow in late 2020. She lives in New Mexico with her husband, daughter and pups.
The series is sponsored by the WIU Department of English, the Fred Ewing Case and Lola Austin Case Writer-in-Residence program and the WIU College of Arts and Sciences. The Fred Ewing Case and Lola Austin Case Writer-in-Residence supports bringing national writers of poetry and fiction to WIU each year.
