CWRU Welcomes Award Winning Author Garth Greenwell

By Lily Stuart

In February, the Case Western Reserve University English Department welcomed Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You (2016) and Cleanness (2020), as its 2023 Stonum Writer-in-Residence. An author of many accolades, Greenwell’s Cleanness was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, a New York Times Notable Book of 2020, a New York Times Critics Top 10 book of the year, and a Best Book of the year by the New Yorker, TIME, NPR, BBC and more.

During his time on campus, Greenwell hosted a total of four events, including a fiction writing workshop, a hands-on letterpress session, a reading of his up-and-coming novel, and a departmental colloquium talk. The latter two were open to the public.

Greenwell is a professor at Princeton University. He carries a passion for literature, poetry, and above all, for students, which was resonant throughout his events. At the department colloquium on Friday, the author noted that he “love[s] attempts to make art more hospitable” and thinks that poetry “helps us live.” Students, faculty, and community members alike were engrossed with Greenwell’s prose and responded with contemplative questions.