Visiting Writers Reading Series Kicks Off With Visit from Poet Octavio Quintanilla
By Pan Deines ’26
The Visiting Writers Reading Series is back for the 2025–2026 academic year, bringing established and emerging writers from around the world to share their work and offer insights to Whitman College students interested in creative writing.
The first event of the year features award-winning poet and artist Octavio Quintanilla, who will read from his work and answer questions in Kimball Theatre in Hunter Conservatory on Thursday, Oct. 23, at 7 p.m. The event is open to the public.
His visit will draw students and faculty interested not only in Creative Writing, but in Hispanic Studies and Art, as Quintanilla writes in both English and Spanish and mixes visual art with poetry in his “Frontextos” (visual poems).
Quintanilla is the 2025 Texas Poet Laureate and the author of the poetry collections, “If I Go Missing” (Slough Press, 2014); “The Book of Wounded Sparrows” (Texas Review Press, 2024), which was longlisted for the National Book Award; and “Las Horas Imposibles / The Impossible Hours” (University of Arizona Press, 2025), winner of the 2024 Ambroggio Prize of the Academy of American Poets . His “Frontextos” have been published and exhibited widely.
Quintanilla holds a doctorate from the University of North Texas and teaches Literature and Creative Writing in the Master of Arts/Master of Fine Arts program at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas.
About the Series
The Visiting Writers Reading Series will bring five established and emerging writers to Whitman College over the course of the academic year. The series is sponsored by the Department of English, the Office of the Provost and Dean of the Faculty, the Lawrence Parke Murphy and Robert Goldstein Trust, and by generous donations from the extended Whitman community.