Skip to main content

Dominican regularly hosts authors and poets for workshops and readings throughout the academic year.

Author Series

The English department's Author Series hosts writers from the Chicago area and beyond for readings and workshops. Professor Maggie Andersen organizes the series. Authors who have visited Dominican include:

  • Tony Romano, two-time winner of a PEN Syndicated Fiction Project Award
  • Brenda Cardenas, Milwaukee poet laureate
  • Kevin Coval, founder of Louder than a Bomb, the largest youth poetry competition in the world
  • Ana Castillo, Chicago-born distinguished poet and novelist
  • Grace Talusan, winner of the 2017 Restless Books Prize
  • Erika Sánchez, author of the New York Times Bestseller I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter 
The Caesar and Patricia Tabet Poetry Reading

Each spring, an acclaimed poet gives a reading at Dominican University. This event is made possible through the generosity of the Caesar and Patricia Tabet Poetry Endowment Fund.

Caesar and Patricia Tabet (’52 Rosary College) have valued education and supported the arts throughout their lives. Literature was an integral component in raising their family. Caesar often quoted and recited poetry, instilling the love of literature in his six children. Throughout his 62-year career with Mutual of New York Life Insurance Company, Caesar wrote many articles for insurance periodicals and training manuals. Shortly before his death in 2008, his book of short stories of his life experiences, A Hair Divides, was published.

Through this event, the Tabet family honors Caesar’s memory and shares his love of literature, especially poetry, and his recognition of education and the arts as a transformative power in elevating the human spirit.

  • March 19, 2014: Li-Young Lee
  • March 18, 2015: Janice N. Harrington
  • March 17, 2016: Stuart Dybek
  • March 22, 2017: Luis Alberto Urrea
  • March 22, 2018: Julia Alvarez
  • March 22, 2019: Eve Ewing
  • January 29, 2020: Naomi Shihab Nye