By Megan Shaffer, Contributing writer
Susquehanna alumna Melissa Goodrich will return to campus to read a selection of stories on April 16 at 7:30 p.m. in Stretansky Concert Hall.
Goodrich is the last visiting writer in this year’s Seavey Reading Series.
This reading will also be the launch of the 2018 edition of “RiverCraft,” one of Susquehanna’s student-run literary magazines.
Goodrich is planning to read stories that deal with anxiety, depression and love: emotions she felt while attending Susquehanna and obtaining her bachelor’s degree.
“The holy trinity, right?” Goodrich said. “But also, these are stories about a girl who turns to sapphires and a girl who turns to ashes and a girl who turns to rabbits.”
“Literalizing a metaphor is really interesting to me,” Goodrich continued. “I like to take a thought or a feeling and make it as concrete as possible in my fiction.”
“I’ll also be talking about what my writing life is like now,” Goodrich explained. “I’ve discovered a love for collaboration and for chasing a story instead of telling it what to be.”
“Writing has become a lot of colluding with the universe and the other wonderful writers in it,” Goodrich continued, referencing how her writing has changed since leaving Susquehanna.
Glen Retief, director of the Writers Institute, said, “I am thrilled to welcome Melissa Goodrich back as an alumna of our writing program and now a visiting writer.”
Retief commented on having Goodrich as a student when she attended Susquehanna.
“I remember how I was always dazzled by her language as a fiction writer and essayist,” Retief continued. “Her details were brilliant, original, precise and full of rich, layered feeling.”
“I have watched with pride from a distance as she has carried on to publish a well received book of short stories and to teach K-12 students in Arizona,” Retief added.
Goodrich said she is honored to be invited back to campus and expects her visit to be nostalgic.
Goodrich also added that what she will be reading will be influenced by her time attending Susquehanna and who she was as a person at the time.
“A lot of reading prep is about theme and timing,” Goodrich said. “I’m reading all transformation stories and I’m trying to keep it short enough to read three of them.”
“I’ve also been thinking back on what I felt like as a Susquehanna junior and senior, those last years filled with so much hope and anticipation for the future, and what might be good to hear,” Goodrich continued.
Goodrich graduated from Susquehanna in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and received her master’s degree in fiction from the University of Arizona.
From her time as a student, Goodrich is a two-time recipient of Susquehanna’s Juliet Gibson Memorial Award for Outstanding Student Writer.
In 2016, Goodrich received a Pushcart Prize Nomination for her story “Anna George.”
Goodrich’s other acclamations include the 2016 Tucson Festival of Books Fiction Award, the 2013 Margaret Sterling Memorial Award, the 2013 AWP Intro Award and the 2012 Academy of American Poets Prize.
In 2017, Goodrich was also a finalist for the Sundog Lit Flash Fiction Collaborative Contest.
Goodrich’s work has been featured in multiple publications and she is the author of the fiction collection “Daughters of Monsters” and the poetry chapbook “IF YOU WHAT.”
Previous visitors in this year’s Seavey Reading Series include Joseph Scapellato, Claire Vaye Watkins, Derek Palacio, Ishion Hutchinson, Karla Kelsey, Silas Zobal, Jennifer Weis, Aminatta Forna, Gary Fincke and Sayed Kashua.
Goodrich is not the only familiar face to read at Susquehanna: Kelsey and Zobal are both current associate professors of creative writing on campus. Fincke founded the Writers Institute in 1993 and retired from Susquehanna in 2016.
The creative writing department’s final event of the semester will be the last senior reading on April 23.
The reading will be held at 7 p.m. in Lore Degenstein Gallery.
