Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism

116 Mt. Vernon St.
Middletown, CT, CT 06457

Spring 2026

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    Dan Chiasson, Biography Event on Wednesday, February 18 at 12:15 pm

    Please join us on Wednesday, February 18, at 12:15 p.m. for a lunchtime conversation with Dan Chaisson about his new book, Bernie for Burlington: The Rise of the People’s Politician. In this biography, Chaisson, a Burlington native with a front-row seat to Bernie Sanders’s early career, reconstructs the rise of an American icon. Drawing on Vermont communes, working-class neighborhoods, local businesses, county fairs, and town meetings, the book traces the unlikely path that led from Burlington to Washington, D.C., and reshaped the national political landscape. Bernie for Burlington is a mesmerizing portrait of a politician, a place, and a movement that would change America. At this event, Chaisson will discuss his research and writing process and reflect on what it means to tell this story now.
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    Jamie Lauren Keiles in conversation with Andrew Leland on Tuesday, March 3 at 5 pm

    Jamie Lauren Keiles is an American writer and journalist. From 2019 to 2023, he was a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. His book, The Third Person, (forthcoming from Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2027) recounts the rise of nonbinary identity in America. Taking issue with the truth and political utility of slogans like “nonbinary people have always been here,” this hybrid work of journalism, theory, and memoir traces the birth of a new identity from 19th century sexology, to Tumblr, to the “gender ideology” panic of the present moment. 

  • Magazine Consortium, Thursday, May 7 - Friday, May 8

    More info coming soon!