MFA in Creative Writing | Summer 2026 Reading Series

New England College’s MFA in Creative Writing program hosts the 2026 Summer Reading Series, featuring readings by the program’s highly talented writers. The week culminates with a reading by Matt Bell, the 2026 Elizabeth Yates McGreal Writer-in-Residence.

Dates: Friday, July 10–Friday, July 17
Time: 7:30 p.m. for all sessions
Locations in Henniker, NH:
John Lyons Center, 55 Depot Hill Road
Science Building Theatre, 24 Circle Street
Rosamond Page Putnam Center for the Performing Arts, 10 Weare Road
Admission: FREE and open to the public

Friday, July 10
Science Building Theatre
Aaron Chung, Chen Chen, and Sam Herschel Wein

Aaron Chung is a first-generation Korean-American screenwriter, working in the film/television industry since 2018. They won the Academy Nicholl Fellowship in 2019. From there, he’s worked for companies like Skydance Animation and Netflix, and has staff writing credit on the Apple TV show, WONDLA.

Chen Chen is the author of two books of poetry, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency and When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities. His work appears in Poetry, The Poetry Review, Ploughshares, The New York Times, and other publications.

Sam Herschel Wein was the recipient of a 2022 Pushcart Prize. They have published four chapbooks, most recently Love that For Us, a collaboration with Chen Chen, with & Change Press. He co-founded and edits Underblong. Sam has recent work in Electric Literature, Third Coast, and Puerto del Sol.

Saturday, July 11
John Lyons Center
Jennifer Militello and David Ryan

Jennifer Militello is the Poet Laureate of New Hampshire. She is the author of the hybrid collection Identifying the Pathogen, The Pact, and the memoir Knock Wood. Her work has appeared in Best American Poetry, The Nation, and The Paris Review.

David Ryan is the author of Animals in Motion: Stories. His work has appeared in the O. Henry Prize anthology, Conjunctions, Georgia Review, New England Review, Chicago Quarterly, The Threepenny Review, and Tin House.

Sunday, July 12
John Lyons Center
Elizabeth Yates McGreal Visiting Alumni Carey Salerno

Carey Salerno serves as the executive director and publisher of Alice James Books where she has been dedicated to broadening the spectrum of the American poetic voice since 2008. She is the author of The Hungriest Stars (2025), Tributary (2021), Shelter (2009), and a co-editor of Lit From Inside: 40 Years of Poetry from Alice James Books (2013). She is the recipient of a 2025 Pushcart Prize and a 2025 Individual Artist Fellowship from the New Jersey State Arts Council. Salerno serves as co-chair for LitNet: The Literary Network and teaches publishing arts and poetry writing for the University of Maine.

Monday, July 13
John Lyons Center
Paige Ackerson-Kiely and Andrew Morgan

Paige Ackerson-Kiely is the author of three books of poetry—In No One’s Land; My Love is a Dead Arctic Explorer; and Dolefully, A Rampart Stands—and other works of poetry and prose. Her poems have appeared in jubilat, Ninth Letter, Bellingham Review, Verse, and Copper Nickel.

Andrew Morgan is a professor, poet, editor, and volunteer whose work can be found in magazines such as Conduit, Verse, Slope, Stride, Fairy Tale Review, New World Writing, Post Road, and Pleiades. His first book, Month of Big Hands, was published by Natural History Press.

Tuesday, July 14
John Lyons Center
Tara Ison and Allison Titus

Tara Ison is the author of the novels A Child out of Alcatraz, The List, Rockaway, and At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf; the story collection Ball; and the essay collection Reeling Through Life: How I Learned to Live, Love, and Die at the Movies.

Allison Titus has written a novel, several chapbooks, and three books of poems, including her newest collection, High Lonesome. Her work has appeared in A Public Space, Tin House, The Believer Magazine, and Ninth Letter, among other places.

Friday, July 17
Putnam Center for the Performing Arts
Matt Bell, the 2026 Elizabeth Yates McGreal Writer-in-Residence

Matt Bell is the author most recently of the novel Appleseed (a New York Times Notable Book) and the craft book Refuse to Be Done, a guide to novel writing, rewriting, and revision. He is also the author of the novels Scrapper and In the House upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods, as well as the short story collection A Tree or a Person or a Wall, a non-fiction book about the classic video game Baldur’s Gate II, and several other titles. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Esquire, Tin House, Fairy Tale Review, American Short Fiction, Orion, and many other publications. A native of Michigan, he teaches creative writing at Arizona State University, where he directs the ASU Worldbuilding Initiative.