Words of Wisdom

As part of his last semester at the College, Bill Roorbach, of the English department, will give a farewell talk and reading titled, “What I Learned at Holy Cross.” The reading is sponsored by Creative Writing and will be held on Wednesday, April 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library, located in Smith Hall.

Roorbach, a visiting professor of English and the William H. P. Jenks Chair in Contemporary American Letters since 2004, emphasized that the talk will be both comical and poignant, as moving on always generates mixed feelings. He’ll be talking about his writing at Holy Cross and what he’s taken away from teaching here, as well as reading some short selections.

He’s also invited seniors Andrew Wing and Julianne Frega to read their own work alongside him, “since students are part of what happened to me,” he said.

“I just want my students to realize that creative writing is a lifetime affair, something they can take with them into any life, any job, any city,” Roorbach stressed. “One of my favorite things is getting books in the mail from former students, years and even decades down the line.”

Roorbach is the author of several books, including Temple Stream: A Rural Odyssey (2006), The Smallest Color (2002), and Big Bend: Stories (2001), which won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. Additionally, he has written some instructional writing books as well as essays. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including The Atlantic Monthly and Harper’s Magazine, and he has also done many reviews for Newsday.

He holds an M.F.A in writing from Columbia University, where he won a School of the Arts Fellowship and a Fellowship of Distinction. He previously taught at Columbia University; the University of Maine, Farmington; and Ohio State University. He served as the fiction editor of Columbia: A Magazine of Poetry and Prose and editor of the Sandstone Prize in Short Fiction (OSU).

As for life after Holy Cross, “if there’s life after HC,” he joked, he plans to write full time for as long as possible. He’s finishing a new novel and wants to focus his efforts on many new projects. He also plans to travel with his wife, Juliet, and daughter, Elysia.

Roorbach will also be appearing on an upcoming Food Network All-Star Cake Challenge as a judge. “They asked me to judge because the theme of the first challenge in this Survivor-like show was life stories,” says Roorbach. “The contestants had to create a cake that told their life story and the cake had to be three feet high and serve at least 150 people!”

Check out the challenge on Sunday, April 5 at 8 p.m.

By Alicia Lincoln '09