Zell Visiting Writers Series: Reading and Q&A with Writer Garth Greenwell
Join us in welcoming writer Garth Greenwell 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.
Greenwell is the author of “What Belongs to You,” which won the British Book Award for Debut of the Year in 2016. His second book “Cleanness” was named a New York Times Notable Book and named a Best Book of 2020 by more than thirty publications.
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.
More About Garth Greenwell
Garth Greenwell is the author of What Belongs to You, which won the British Book Award for Debut of the Year, was longlisted for the National Book Award, and was a finalist for many other awards, including the PEN/Faulkner Award, the LA Times Book Prize, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. His second book, Cleanness, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and was longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize, the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and the Prix Sade, among others. A New York Times Notable Book, it was named a Best Book of 2020 by over thirty publications.
Greenwell’s new novel, Small Rain won the 2025 PEN/Faulkner Award and was longlisted for the National Book Critics’ Circle Award. His cultural criticism appears widely, and he writes regularly about books, music, and film for the Substack newsletter To a Green Thought. He has taught at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Princeton University, Grinnell College, and the University of Mississippi, where he was the John and Renée Grisham Writer in Residence. A 2020 Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of the 2021 Vursell Award for prose style from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he is currently a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University.
SUPPORT
The Zell Visiting Writers Series is a reading series presented by the Helen Zell Writers’ Program in partnership with the University of Michigan Museum of Art, with support from the Department of English Language & Literature, the Office of the Vice President for Research, and Janey Lack.