Writers in Residence
The Distinguished Writers in Residence Program was launched in 2022 to bring noteworthy writers from around the world to Wesleyan University. Writers teach classes and organize artistic events and experiences for students, including readings, performances, poetry slams, book give-aways, and conferences.
The Distinguished Writers in Residence for the 2026-2027 academic year have been selected. The application portal for 2027-2028 will open in winter 2027.
-
Ryan Bloom
Ryan Bloom was born and raised in Washington, D.C. He is a Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at Wesleyan University, a 2024 - 2025 Guggenheim Fellow, and winner of the 2026 French-American Foundation Translation Prize. He has twice been awarded endowed fellowships by The Corporation of Yaddo. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, New England Review, Tin House, Guernica, PEN America, Salon, Vice, Black Clock, Creative Nonfiction, Catapult Books, The American Prospect, and a variety of other publications. In addition to short-form work, Ryan has published translations of Albert Camus' Travels in the Americas and Notebooks 1951 - 1959, both finalists for The French-American Foundation Translation Prize. He has also published translations of Camus' Caligula & Three Other Plays; The First Man: The Graphic Novel; and The Complete Notebooks. Currently, he is working on a translation of Albert Camus' final collection of political writings, Confronting the Tragedy of History.
-
Namwali Serpell
Born in Lusaka, Zambia, Namwali Serpell is the author of two novels: The Old Drift (2019), winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book prize for fiction, the Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction, the Grand Prix des Associations Littéraires Prize for Belles-Lettres, and the LA Times’ Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction; and The Furrows (2022), named one of the best books of the year by the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, The New Yorker, Time, and many other publications. She is a Professor of English at Harvard University and has published two books of criticism: Seven Modes of Uncertainty (2014) and Stranger Faces (2020), which was long listed for a Believer Book Award for Nonfiction and was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. Her many honors include a Windham-Campbell Prize and a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award. This year, she is a Distinguished-Writer-in-Residence at Wesleyan University.