Stein Visiting Writers

Each year, the Creative Writing Program welcomes a distinguished writer to teach a Stanford writing seminar to undergraduates. These unique classes are kept small--limited to no more than 15 students--and they focus on a subject of the writer’s expertise and choosing. These seminars are made possible with the generous support of Isaac and Madeline Stein.

The writer also holds a public reading and colloquium. For information about events with previous Stein Visiting Writers, refer to our Past Events page.

 

R.O. Kwon

 

Smeeta Mahanti

 

R.O. Kwon’s nationally bestselling first novel, The Incendiaries, has been translated into seven languages and was named a best book of the year by over forty publications. The Incendiaries was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award. Kwon and Garth Greenwell coedited the bestselling Kink, a New York Times Notable Book and the recipient of the inaugural Joy Award. Kwon's next novel, Exhibit, is publishing in 2024.

Kwon’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, New Yorker, and elsewhere. She has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Yaddo, and MacDowell. Born in Seoul, Kwon has lived most of her life in the United States.

 

English 190V Reading for Writers: Korean Stories

 

  • Offered: Winter 2024

  • Instructor: Professor Kwon

  • Satisfies the Intermediate/Advanced Prose requirement

  • Enrollment granted on priority basis. To be considered for enrollment, please submit the Course Preference Form.

Squid Game, Blackpink, Parasite, BTS—the influence and popularity of Korean culture have been growing throughout the world, very much including in literature. In this class, we'll read fiction, nonfiction, graphic literature, and poetry from Korean writers in Korea as well as those in the diaspora. The reading is interdisciplinary, but this is a fiction course: we'll work rigorously on short pieces of our own fiction.

 

Stein Visiting WritersVIsting period
Laleh Khadivi2022-2023
Andrew Sean Greer2021-2022
Lan Samantha Chang and Camille T. Dungy2020-2021
No Stein Visiting Writer this year2019-2020
Rebecca Solnit2018-2019
Ron Carlson and Rebecca Solnit2017-2018
Stuart Dybek and Rebecca Solnit2016-2017
Larissa MacFarquhar and Philip Gourevitch2015-2016
Joyce Carol Oates2014-2015
Richard Bausch2013-2014
Richard Powers2012-2013
Abraham Verghese2011-2012
Charles Baxter2010-2011
Richard Powers2009-2010
Mary Gordon2008-2009
Colm Tóibín2007-2008
Ron Hansen2006-2007
Colm Tóibín2005-2006
Bharati Mukherjee2004-2005
John Coetzee2003-2004
Michael Ondaatje2002-2003
Vikram Seth2001-2002
Maxine Hong Kingston2000-2001