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Megan Stielstra: 2019 Sturm Writer-in-Residence



Each year the English Department invites an author to spend a week at WVU for the Virginia Butts Sturm program. This year we were honored to welcome nationally renowned author Megan Stielstra as our Virginia Butts Sturm Writer-in-Residence. 

On Monday, September 30th, Megan read from her acclaimed collection The Wrong Way to Save Your Life in the Milano Reading room of the WVU Downtown Library. 

Megan Stielstra Reading

Most of the audience was already very familiar with her work, but Megan’s masterful storytelling at the event made us hang onto her every word. Afterward, she answered questions from the audience about process and craft, then gave a book signing. 

For the remainder of the week, Megan led a workshop with nine WVU MFA students. She also met individually with each student to discuss a sample of their work.

2019 Sturm Group

Megan Stielstra is the author of three collections: The Wrong Way To Save Your LifeOnce I Was Cool, and Everyone Remain Calm. Her work appears in the Best American Essays, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, Poets & Writers, The Believer, Longreads, Tin House, Guernica, Catapult, LitHub, Buzzfeed Reader, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. A longtime company member with 2nd Story, she has told stories for National Public Radio, Radio National Australia, Museum of Contemporary Art, Goodman Theatre, and regularly with The Paper Machete live news magazine at The Green Mill. She teaches creative nonfiction at Northwestern University.

Stielstra Event Programs