40th Annual Spring Literary Festival

The Ohio University English Department plans to hold the 2026 40th Annual Spring Literary Festival on the Athens campus on March 25 & 26.

Wednesday, March 25th

7:30 p.m.: A Lecture by Jeff VanderMeer (Walter Hall Rotunda)

8:30 p.m.: A Reading by George Bilgere (Walter Hall Rotunda)

Thursday, March 26th

10 a.m.: A Lecture by George Bilgere (room to be announced)

11 a.m.: A Lecture by Hala Alyan (room to be announced)

7:30 p.m.: A Reading by Hala Alyan (Walter Hall Rotunda)

8:30 p.m.: A Reading by Jeff VanderMeer (Walter Hall Rotunda)

Hala Alyan is a licensed clinical psychologist, professor at New York University, and writer of poetry and prose, fiction and nonfiction. She earned a BA from the American University of Beirut and an MA from Columbia University before completing her doctorate in clinical psychology from Rutgers University where she specialized in trauma and addiction work with various populations. Her work grapples heroically with themes of family, displacement, belonging, and what ‘home’ means, and her most recent publication, her first memoir titled I’ll Tell You When I’m Home, has been praised repeatedly as one of the best books of 2025.

George Bilgere came into national prominence in 2002 when then U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins chose his collection of poems, The Good Kiss, to win the University of Akron Poetry Prize. His many honors include the May Swenson Poetry Award, the Society of Midland Authors Poetry Prize, the Devins Award, the University of Akron Poetry Prize, the Cleveland Arts Prize, and the 2023 Rattle Chapbook Prize. Bilgere is a Distinguished Professor of English at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, and his work has appeared in such notable publications as Poetry, Kenyon Review, Best American Poetry, Field, Georgia Review, Southern Review, Sewanee Review, Ploughshares, New England Review, and elsewhere.

Renowned writer of the New Weird, Jeff VanderMeer is the author of NYT-bestselling Southern Reach trilogy which has been translated into over 37 languages and given the Hollywood treatment with an adaptation of the first novel in the series, Annihilation, starting Natalie Portman. Over a 35-year career, VanderMeer has been a four-time World Fantasy Award winner and 20-time nominee and his work has won the Nebula Award and Shirley Jackson Award. Recent works include Hummingbird Salamander, Bliss, and A Peculiar Peril, in addition to Theo Ellsworth's graphic novel adaptation of his short story Secret Life.