Zell Visiting Writers Series: Reading and Q&A with Leslie Jamison
Join us in welcoming New York Times bestselling author Leslie S. Jamison for a reading and Q+A as part of the Zell Visiting Writers Series, presented by the Helen Zell Writer’s Program in partnership with UMMA, with support from the Department of English Language & Literature.
Jamison is a New York Times bestselling author whose writing blends personal narrative, cultural criticism, and literary reportage. Her two essay collections, “The Empathy Exams” (2014) and “Make It Scream, Make It Burn” (2019) explore loneliness, intimacy, and the limits of shared feeling. Her critical memoir, “The Recovering” (2018), grapples with the relationships between addiction, creativity, and recovery; and her novel, “The Gin Closet” (2010), explores family estrangement across multiple generations. Her latest book, the memoir “Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story,” explores the intersections between caregiving, life ruptures, and the creative impulse.
Zell Visiting Writers Series readings and Q&As are free and open to the public and will be offered both virtually (via Zoom) and in person (in UMMA’s Stern Auditorium). Seats are offered on a first come, first served basis; please arrive early to secure a spot.
For any questions about the event or to share accommodation needs, please email kimjulie@umich.edu — we are eager to help ensure this event is inclusive to you.
Special Notice: Please note UMMA is a polling location and due to Michigan State Law, campaigning and campaign attire is prohibited within 100 feet of the Museum.
More About Leslie Jamison
A regular writer for The New Yorker magazine, Jamison has contributed to many publications including The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, The New York Review of Books, Virginia Quarterly Review, and The New York Times Book Review, where she was a regular columnist for several years. Jamison has twice been a finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award and a National Magazine Award; she was the guest editor for Best American Essays 2017. Jamison earned her MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and her PhD at Yale University before joining the Columbia University faculty in 2015, earning tenure in 2023.