Annual Events

Story Week Festival of Writers is an annual week-long series of readings, conversations, and panel discussions that celebrates the power of story. Festival participants are Columbia's own students and fiction writing faculty, as well as authors and members of the publishing industry from all over the world. Past participants include Sherman Alexie, Dorothy Allison, A. Manette Ansay, Edwidge Danticat, Don De Grazia, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Jane Hamilton, Charles Johnson, Joe Meno, Bharati Mukherjee, Richard Price, Hubert Selby, Jr., April Sinclair, Irvine Welsh, John Edgar Wideman, and many, many others. Visit the Story Week website for more info.

Creative Nonfiction Week: brings distinguished creative nonfiction writers to the campus for a week of literary events.

Readings in the Raw (Literarily, That Is): open to all graduate students who have completed work or work in progress.

Rookie Readings: open to Intro, Fiction Writing I and Fiction Writing II students.

Advanced Readings: open to Prose Forms and Advanced students.

Submission Drive: sponsored by the Fiction Writing Department Student Board, we pay the postage for you to submit your work to magazines.

Fiction Writers at Lunch: a convivial, free brown bag lunch and/or dinner meeting of Fiction Writing Students to discuss their writing and listen to the writing of professional authors.

Young Authors High School Writing Contest: an event sponsored yearly by the department.

Hair Trigger Publications Release Reception: an annual event to celebrate the publication of Hair Trigger, our annually published anthology of student writing.

John Schultz and Betty Shiflett Story Workshop Scholarship Awards Gala: a yearly party to award scholarships.

Sylvia McNair Travel Story Scholarship Award Ceremony: a yearly party to award scholarships.

F Magazine Release Reading and Party: a yearly event to celebrate the publication of F Magazine's novels-in-progress issues.

Graduate Student Reception: an annual party and celebration for students to acquaint them with our graduate programs and discuss their concerns and questions about a variety of subjects including the thesis.

Career Night: once a year, usually in the fall semester, alumni return to the campus to meet with currently enrolled students to talk about how the alums used their writing skills to get and advance in jobs.