Michael Cervas Visiting Writers Program

The Michael Cervas Visiting Writers Program is named in honor of Michael Cervas who taught English from 1986-2020 and who initiated two longstanding visiting writers programs: The Westminster Poet Series and the Friday Nights at Westminster series of readings. The Michael Cervas Visiting Writers Program is supported by generous gifts from the Ford-Goldfarb English Department Enrichment Fund, the Gordon McKinley Visiting Writers Fund, and the Friday Nights at Westminster Fund.  

About Michael Cervas
During his 34-year tenure on the Westminster faculty, Michael taught all levels of English; coached basketball, soccer, track, baseball, golf and squash; worked as a corridor supervisor in Alumni House; and presided as department head for three decades. Having retired from his full-time appointment to the faculty at the end of the 2019-2020 academic year, Michael continues to direct the Visiting Writers Program.

Gordon McKinley Friday Nights at Westminster

The Gordon McKinley Friday Nights at Westminster series began in 2009-2010 to coincide with the opening of the Armour Academic Center. Held six times a year (twice each trimester), the program invites writers to campus for a Friday evening reading followed by Saturday morning visits with English classes. English teachers typically introduce students to the visiting writers' works in advance, fostering an informed audience.

The series has featured nationally renowned poets, essayists, novelists, jazz musicians, and singer-songwriters, including Jennifer Egan, Ron Carlson, Emily St. John Mandel, Anthony Doerr, Monica Wood, Dar Williams, Kris Delmhorst, Nat Reeves, and Mark Erelli. Local talents like Colin McEnroe, Rand Richards Cooper, Lynn Hoffman, Jonathan Gilman, Gina Barreca, and Rob Duguay have also participated. Each evening begins with a reading by a student or faculty member.

The series is named for Gordon McKinley, a Westminster faculty member from 1956–1986 who chaired the English department and taught creative writing and public speaking. The program is supported by the Gordon McKinley Friday Nights at Westminster Fund, endowed by Nathan Hayward '61.

2025-2026 Schedule

List of 1 items.

  • Friday Nights at Westminster 2025-2026

    Please join us for Friday Nights at Westminster, a series of readings and concerts held at Westminster School during the 2025-2026 academic year on selected Friday nights, (occasionally on other nights of the week).
     
    The events begin at 7 p.m. and are free and open to members of the public. Events are held in either the Westminster Centennial Center or the Gund Reading Room of the school’s Armour Academic Center. We will let you know where each event will be held once the decision is made. Parking is available in the parking lot adjacent to Armour.
    Friday, Oct. 17
    Jennifer De Leon 

    Jennifer De Leon, born in the Boston area to Guatemalan parents, is an award-winning author of YA novels Borderless and Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From, as well as the essay collection White Space, which won the Juniper Prize. She also edited the acclaimed anthology Wise Latinas and is working on two children's picture books. A contributor to NPR and published in numerous literary journals, Jenn is an Associate Professor at Framingham State University and teaches in the Newport MFA Program. She holds degrees from Connecticut College, the University of San Francisco, and UMASS-Boston, and has been honored with fellowships and residencies from Bread Loaf, Hedgebrook, Macondo, and VONA.

    Friday, Dec. 12
    Julie Choffel

    Julie Choffel is a poet and educator whose most recent book, Dear Wallace, won the Backwaters Prize and was published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2024. She is also the author of The Hello Delay, winner of the Poets Out Loud Prize, and several chapbooks. Her work has appeared in journals such as Tupelo Quarterly, ORION, Conduit, and Denver Quarterly. Originally from Austin, Texas, Julie holds degrees in geography and creative writing, and has held a wide range of roles—from floral designer to English professor—reflecting her diverse interests and experiences.

    Friday, Jan. 23
    Daniel D'Addario

    Daniel D’Addario is Variety’s chief correspondent, writing features, profiles, and columns. Previously, he was the magazine's chief television critic, as well as the television critic for Time. He is a Westminster alum who graduated from Columbia University and lives in Brooklyn.


Westminster Poet Series

The Westminster Poet Series began in 1999 when Linda Pastan, at the time the Poet Laureate of the State of Maryland, came to Westminster to give an evening reading and visit with English classes the following day. The second poet in the series was Billy Collins, who had just been named United States Poet Laureate. Since then, the school has welcomed award-winning poets from all around the United States to campus for two-day visits. Westminster Poets have been United States Poets Laureate, State of Connecticut Poets Laureate, Pulitzer Prize winners, and National Book Award winners.

Carrie Fountain O’Neil Named Westminster Poet for 2025-2026

Carrie Fountain is a poet, novelist, and educator born and raised in Mesilla, New Mexico, where her family's multicultural history runs deep. She is the author of three acclaimed poetry collections—The Life, Instant Winner, and Burn Lake, the latter of which won the 2009 National Poetry Series Award. Her young adult novel, I’m Not Missing, was a Bustle Best YA Book of July 2018, and she is also the author of the children’s book The Poem Forest, about poet W.S. Merwin. She is currently adapting I’m Not Missing for the screen, writing a second YA novel, and completing a new poetry collection.

Fountain’s work explores themes of place, memory, history, motherhood, and identity, often weaving narrative into poems that search for spiritual meaning in everyday life. Her upbringing in rural New Mexico—marked by adobe houses, unpaved roads, and ditch-fishing as a child—deeply informs her writing. She’s described poetry as a way to “make sense of the experience of being in the world,” and sees writing from the perspective of a woman and mother as a powerful political act.

Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, Tin House, and other major journals. She has received honors including the Marlboro Poetry Prize, the Austin Library Foundation’s Award for Literary Excellence, and induction into the Texas Institute of Letters. In 2019, she was named Texas State Poet Laureate. Fountain also hosts This Is Just to Say, a podcast and radio show from KUT featuring intimate conversations with leading writers. She teaches creative writing nationwide and earned her MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at UT Austin.

Fountain will be visiting Westminster from Feb. 23-24. Here are a few of her poems:

TIME TO BE IN THE FINE LINE OF LIGHT

between the blind and the sill, nothing
really. There are so many things
that destroy. To think solely of them
is as foolish and expedient as not
thinking of them at all. All I want
is to be the river though I return
again and again to the clouds.
All I want is to stop beginning sentences
with All I want. No—no really all
I want is this morning: my daughter
and my son saying “Da!” back and forth
over breakfast, cracking each other up
while eating peanut butter toast
and raspberries, making a place for
the two of them I will, eventually,
no longer be allowed to enter. Time to be
the fine line. Time to practice being
the line. And then maybe the darkness.

WANT

The wasps outside
the kitchen window
are making that
thick, unraveling sound
again, floating in
and out of the bald head
of their nest,
seeming not to move
while moving,
and it has just occurred
to me, standing,
washing the coffeepot,
watching them hang
loosely in the air—thin
wings; thick, elongated
abdomens; sad, down—
pointing antennae—
that this
is the heart’s constant
project: this simple
learning; learning
how to hold
hopelessness
and hope together;
to see on the unharmed
surface of one
the great scar
of the other; to recognize
both and to make
something of both;
to desire everything
and nothing
at once and to desire it
all the time;
and to contain that desire
fleshly, in a body;
to wash it and rest it
and feed it; to learn
its name and from whence
it came; and to speak
to it—oh, most of all
to speak to it—
every day, every day,
saying to one part,
“Well, maybe this is all
you get,” while saying
to the other, “Go on,
break it open, let it go.”

List of 2 items.

  • Time To Be In The Fine of Light

    between the blind and the sill, nothing
    really. There are so many things

    that destroy. To think solely of them
    is as foolish and expedient as not

    thinking of them at all. All I want
    is to be the river though I return

    again and again to the clouds.
    All I want is to stop beginning sentences

    with All I want. No—no really all
    I want is this morning: my daughter

    and my son saying “Da!” back and forth
    over breakfast, cracking each other up

    while eating peanut butter toast
    and raspberries, making a place for

    the two of them I will, eventually,
    no longer be allowed to enter. Time to be

    the fine line. Time to practice being
    the line. And then maybe the darkness.

  • Want

    The wasps outside
    the kitchen window
    are making that
    thick, unraveling sound
    again, floating in
    and out of the bald head
    of their nest,
    seeming not to move
    while moving,
    and it has just occurred
    to me, standing,
    washing the coffeepot,
    watching them hang
    loosely in the air—thin
    wings; thick, elongated
    abdomens; sad, down—
    pointing antennae—
    that this
    is the heart’s constant
    project: this simple
    learning; learning
    how to hold
    hopelessness
    and hope together;
    to see on the unharmed
    surface of one
    the great scar
    of the other; to recognize
    both and to make
    something of both;
    to desire everything
    and nothing
    at once and to desire it
    all the time;
    and to contain that desire
    fleshly, in a body;
    to wash it and rest it
    and feed it; to learn
    its name and from whence
    it came; and to speak
    to it—oh, most of all
    to speak to it—
    every day, every day,
    saying to one part,
    “Well, maybe this is all
    you get,” while saying
    to the other, “Go on,
    break it open, let it go.”

Westminster Poets

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