Every year, The Colorado State University English department’s Creative Writing Reading Series brings writers and community members together for the Writers Harvest: a reading with the goal of collecting donations for those in need. This year, however, is a particularly special occasion for the department.
The 2026 Writers Harvest will be held at 7 p.m. Nov. 5 in the Never No Summer Ballroom of the Lory Student Center and will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the department’s MFA program.
The reading series is organized by members of the English departments faculty and features readings from visiting authors of fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction multiple times per semester.
Matthew Cooperman, an acclaimed poet and CSU professor who directs the series, said he is in his third and final year of his term leading the CWRS. He began teaching in 2003, and it was through his influence the Writers Harvest became a staple of the department in 2005.
“They weren’t doing it when I got here, and the school I had come from before being here did,” Cooperman said. “And so I thought, well, let’s just restart this.”
In celebration of MFA program’s 40th anniversary, Cooperman is bringing back five former faculty members who played an integral role in program’s early years: John Calderazzo, Deanna Kern Ludwin, Steven Schwartz, Bill Tremblay and Mary Crow.
Calderazzo began working at CSU in 1986 and helped integrate creative nonfiction into the existing undergraduate curriculum. In the years between then and his retirement in 2016, he and other English department colleagues founded the creative nonfiction track in the graduate program.
“It feels wonderful to have been a big part of that and to have had the privilege, truly, of working with so many super smart, dedicated and hardworking visionaries over the years,” Calderazzo said.
Although he lives only eight miles from campus and has continued to publish creative fiction and poetry, he said this event is somewhat a homecoming for him and the other returning former faculty.
“It will be just wonderful to see and catch up with them, find out what they are doing these days,” Calderazzo said.
While Writers Harvest is on the university’s campus, it is open to everyone and is free to attend. All that organizers ask is for attendees to consider bringing nonperishable food items to donate. Those who donate are entered in a ticket-based giveaway and can win a variety of items, including gift certificates, coffee cups and signed copies of the featured authors’ books.
Cooperman said the event typically delivers around 1,000 pounds of foodstuffs to the Food Bank for Larimer County during the coldest months of the year.
“Those food scarcity issues become more pressing as we get into the winter months, and they also coincide with the holidays,” Cooperman said. “And so that somebody has, you know, a warm meal and a place to be for the holidays, I think, is super important.”
The Writers Harvest has become a way to shed light on issues of food scarcity through the faculty’s passion for the arts. Calderazzo said his current pursuit of teaching environmental scientists how to use storytelling techniques to explain difficult topics has reminded him how important events like this can be.
“Often, everyday folks will connect best with even ‘difficult’ or complicated or technical issues (if) those issues are explained to them in everyday language and powered by storytelling,” Calderazzo said. “Who does not like a story?”
On top of the donations, the event is a way to get students to gather in a single place and learn to better appreciate the written word.
“I think the students came to feel empowered in learning and appreciating that excellent literary topics could be found in the world around them, in everyday people, too,” Calderazzo said.
Devon Fulford, a poet and CSU professor, said she was once one of those students; she received her undergraduate degree from CSU while Calderazzo and other featured guests were still teaching.
“They’re all pretty amazing humans and prolific writers that were around,” Fulford said.
Fulford was a featured writer at last year’s Writers Harvest to bring attention to her two books, “Gulp,” which was released in 2024, and “Onus,” which was released in 2025. She said she read second, following Cooperman and preceding professor and acclaimed poet Dan Beachy-Quick.
“The two gentlemen with whom I read (with) that evening both have Guggenheim awards, … and then there’s me,” Fulford said. “And they stuck me in the middle right between them.”
As a relatively new faculty member, Fulford talked about how the audience at the Writers Harvest helped her overcome feelings of imposter syndrome.
“I told the audience that before I began reading, and they were very supportive,” Fulford said.
Fulford directs the Literacy Through Prose and Poetry program. Now, like those faculty before her, Fulford works side-by-side with graduate students to pursue their literary goals.
“Poetry in particular, I think, is one specific way that we might not think of as an entrance between communities, but I think it absolutely is … a bridge between communities,” Fulford said.
Reach Maiya Kreamer at entertainment@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.
