President Joseph Coulson Speaking at Penn State CALS Symposium

We’re honored that Joe is among a group of authors and leaders in the humanities who will participate in the Center for American Literary Studies (CALS) Spring Symposium: American Literature as a Public Space. The March 30 event will celebrate the innovative ways individuals, museums, foundations, libraries, blogs, and other forums engage readers, draw them together, and make American literature an important public space. Joe, an award-winning author, poet, and playwright, will be a featured speaker and participate in panel discussions.

“We must create a place in our lives for American literature,” says Joe. “How else can we know in an intimate way our nature and common purpose.”

The symposium’s purpose is twofold: to celebrate ongoing efforts to situate American literature as an important part of civic life and to imagine other ways to position the reading as a cultural experience. Other participants include Ellis Avery, author and Assistant Professor of Poetry, Columbia University; Margaret Dietz, poet and Assistant Professor of English, University of Massachusetts; Paul Lai, Hennepin County and Ramsey County Libraries, and Co-Editor (with Stephen Sohn) of Asian American Literature Fans; Malcolm E. O’Hagan, President, the American Writers Museum Foundation; Founder, the American Writers Museum.