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Jennifer Jahrling Forese Writer-in-Residence Program

Colby established the Jennifer Jahrling Forese Writer-in-Residence Program in 2019.

Nicholson Baker

Nicholson Baker was the first Jennifer Jahrling Forese writer, coming to campus to teach (by way of Zoom thanks to COVID-19) Reading for Writers: A Journey Through the New Yorker, a course that focused on “works that have one way or another changed history, or left it unchanged but made it seem new, hilarious, worthwhile.”

Marianne Boruch

Marianne Boruch followed Baker in the spring of  2022. She taught We Learn by Doing: Poetry into Theatre as “a lab experiment” to rework her volume of poems, Bestiary Dark, “as theater, a public gesture that returns to poetry’s ancient roots,” and taught two image workshops to community members downtown.

Mark Poirier

Mark Jude Poirer was Colby’s third Jennifer Jahrling Forese Writer-in-Residence. Poirer taught an Introduction to Screenwriting course “for those who wish to learn the fundamentals of feature-length screenwriting and to write scripts that are not only technical documents but compelling reads.” Poirer also hosted a panel discussion of why screenplays work, inviting esteemed guests to speak with Colby Students. Diana Ossana, Oscar-winning producer and screenwriter of Annie Proulx’s “Brokeback Mountain;” Annie Winerip, Head of Development for BLOSSOM, Nicole Kidman’s production company; Ali Lefkowitz, a media-rights agent; and Alix Madigan, Oscar-nominated producer of Daniel Woodrell’s “Winter’s Bone” spoke with students about their time in the entertainment industry and the production of successful screenplays in downtown Waterville’s Paul J. Schupf Art Center. 

Nicole Georges was Colby’s fourth Jennifer Jahrling Forese Writer-in-Residence. Georges is an award-winning graphic novelist, podcaster, and professor from Portland, Oregon. Georges taught EN298 Graphic Memoir: Specificity and the Soul of Narrative during her residency. She also hosted a reading in the new Gordon Center for Creative and Performing Arts as well as a community “Grief Comics Workshop” at Greene Block + Studios in which participants were encouraged to create an illustrated booklet about someone they missed. 

Colby invites established writers and poets to Waterville to teach a novel course or a course focused on a genre not normally offered by the permanent faculty and to engage the local community. Calls for applications go out at the end of the summer of each year.

For more information, contact Program Director Adrian Blevins ([email protected]).