A person with short hair, wearing a dark jacket and black shirt, is sitting on a bench outdoors. They are leaning their head on one hand and smiling. Trees and greenery are visible in the background.
Literary Arts Institute

Susan Stewart, Ann Hamilton along with Michael Mercil

March 19, 2017

March 19-21, 2017

A person with short hair, wearing a dark jacket and black shirt, is sitting on a bench outdoors. They are leaning their head on one hand and smiling. Trees and greenery are visible in the background.


Susan Stewart is the author of five books of poetry, including Cinder: New and Selected Poems, which is this year’s Sister Mariella Gable award-winning book, as part of an annual collaboration between Graywolf Press and the LAI.  This retrospective collection presents the development of one of the most ingenious and moving lyric writers in contemporary poetry. A former MacArthur Fellow and a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Stewart teaches at Princeton University.

Portrait of a person with short gray hair, smiling slightly, wearing a dark top. The background is a plain light color.


Ann Hamilton is an internationally renowned visual artist known for the sensory surrounds of her large-scale multimedia installations. Last year Hamilton received the National Arts Medal from then President Obama, in addition to being awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, NEA Visual Arts Fellowship, United States Artists Fellowship, the Heinz Award, and many other honors. She is a Distinguished University Professor of Art at The Ohio State University.

Susan Stewart and Ann Hamilton will be on campus to perform their collaborative pieces “Channel” and “Mirror” along with other works.

Susan Stewart will also be reading from her Sister Mariella Gable award-winning book, Cinder: New and Selected Poems.

A grayscale collage: a man smiling with glasses on the left, a middle section with text, and on the right, a cow illustration with text: "covenant, a film about farm animals and us," and "by Michael Merkel.


Michael Mercil is a Professor in the Department of Art at The Ohio State University. He received an MFA from the University of Chicago in 1988, and a BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art & Design in 1978. Mercil’s recent documentary Covenant: a film about farm animals (and us).