The SUNY Oswego Living Writers Series is back with a wide variety of virtual guests covering the world of novels, screenwriting, illustration, broadcasting, filmmaking, poetry, fiction, storytelling and more.

Michael Raicht, an assistant professor of English and creative writing, organized this year's schedule and teaches the class for the third time. Speakers will appear via Zoom at 3 p.m. on their respective days, open to virtual visitors anywhere.

The class lets students learn more about the many avenues open in the field of writing and ask creators about getting into the business and other questions. The Artswego Performing Arts Series provides major support for the series.

The series begins Sept. 12 with Zach Howard, a freelance professional illustrator of over 20 years. His most notable employers include Marvel, Disney, DC, Warner Bros., Image, IDW, Simon & Schuster and Steve Jackson Games. Howard’s most popular projects are “Hellboy,” “Wild Blue Yonder,” “Shaun of the Dead,” “Judge Dredd,” “Spiderman,” “X-Men,” “GI Joe,” “The Cape” and “Detective Comics.” He has been nominated for an Eisner award, multiple Indie awards and received an Amazon Book of the Month selection for “Wild Blue Yonder.” 

Appearing Sept. 21, Juliet and Keith Giglio are a husband-wife screenwriting duo who recently released their first novel, “The Summer of Christmas.” They both teach screenwriting – Juliet at SUNY Oswego and Keith at Syracuse University – and are known for writing high-profile Hallmark Channel holiday films such as “Reba McEntire’s Christmas in Tune,” “Dear Christmas,” “A Very Nutty Christmas” and “Christmas Reservations.” Other credits include “Disney’s Tarzan,” “Pizza My Heart,” “Return to Halloweentown,” “Joshua” and “A Cinderella Story.”

The only in-person presenter will be A.S. King, author of this year’s Oswego Reading Initiative selection “Dig”, visiting campus to speak at 7 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 26 in the Sheldon Hall ballroom. King, who specializes in young adult (YA) writing, has been called “One of the best YA writers working today” by the New York Times Book Review and in 2022 received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature. In addition to “Dig,” a 2020 Michael L. Printz Award winner and LA Times Book Prize finalist, King’s highly-acclaimed novels include “SW/TCH,” “Still Life with Tornado,” “I Crawl Through It,” “Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future,” “Reality Boy, “Ask the Passengers,” “Everybody Sees the Ants,” “Please Ignore Vera Dietz” and others. A faculty member of the writing for children and young adults master of fine arts program at Vermont College of Fine Arts, she also writes middle grade fiction as Amy Sarig King. Her in-person talk is free and open to all.

On Oct. 3, Jeff Rea, author of “The Shineman Legacy: The Founder Speaks,” will discuss his vast experience of more than 40 years in communications. He worked as a reporter, editor and manager at the former Herald-Journal and The Post-Standard/Syracuse.com for 32 years. On retirement, he taught journalism courses at SUNY Oswego, his alma mater, then joined the college’s Office of Communications and Marketing for nearly 10 years, retiring in 2019. This book, on the roots of the community-supporting Shineman Foundation, is his first; he also has a novel in the works.

Ann Austen, an Emmy Award-winning writer/producer/showrunner, will appear on Oct. 12. Austen’s career spans a wide range of genres and projects, from writing and co-producing “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers” to being co-executive producer on the Obamas’ Higher Ground production “Waffles and Mochi.” For the past six years Austen has served as creative producer/co-executive producer on Barbie content for Mattel, including “Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures.” Austen has produced series for Apple, Saban, Spin Master, Technicolor, Universal Kids and the National Football League. She co-wrote and executive produced “The Snowy Day” at Amazon Studios, which won the 2016 Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Preschool Program, and received a BAFTA nomination for Best International Production. Austen also won the Humanitas and the Writers Guild of America awards for her Disney Channel original movie “Johnny Tsunami.”

Actor and writer Kevin Grevioux will appear on Oct. 26 to discuss his variety of experiences, including acting in such films as “The Mask,” “Steel,” “Congo,” “Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes” and “Underworld.” “Underworld” marked his first produced writing credit, as he came up with the original premise and wrote the original screenplay along with director Len Wiseman, launching the Underworld franchise. Voice credits include “Young Justice,” “The Avengers” and “Batman Beyond.” Grevioux’s comic writing credits include his creation “Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel,” as well as “New Warriors,” “SpiderMan,” “Young Avengers,” “Cyborg,” “Batman” and “JSA.” In 2017 he released “Brothers Bond” with collaborator Ryan Benjamin for which he was nominated for the 2018 Eisner Award for Best Webcomic. He will make his feature directorial debut with the upcoming action thriller “King of Killers.”

Nov. 7 will feature Phil Memmer, the author of six books of poems, including “Cairns,” “Pantheon” and “Lucifer: A Hagiography,” which won Lost Horse Press’s Idaho Prize for Poetry. His work has appeared in such journals as Poetry, Poetry Northwest, Poetry London and Southern Poetry Review; in many anthologies; and in the Library of Congress’s Poetry 180 project. He founded and directs the YMCA’s Downtown Writers Center in Syracuse, serves as publisher at Tiger Bark Press and teaches creative writing on occasion at Hamilton College. 

Chris Motto, appearing Nov. 16, was a writing fellow and winner of The Dan Rudy Fiction Award at George Mason University, where she earned a master of fine arts in fiction. Motto taught for 22 years in the Department of English and Creative Writing at SUNY Oswego, and is now the writing and tutorial coordinator at the Center for Academic Success at Cayuga Community College. She has been published in So to Speak Journal and Waxing and Waning Literary & Arts Journal. Her new novel, “A Knit of Identity,” releases in October. 

The series wraps on Nov. 30 with Lester Eugene Mayers, a storyteller who goes where the story is. The Brooklyn native is a current Many Voices Fellow at The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. Gay-Blackfeminine and a feminist, Mayers tackles issues that the public has historically ignored. He has been published by the Huffington Post and Arsenal Pulp Press. A recent nominee for the Lambda Literary 2022 Awards, Mayers is set to debut a vault of new work in many forms of storytelling beginning in fall 2022. 

The Office of Career Services provides additional funding support.

Visit the Living Writers Series website and search via that term on the college’s Events Calendar for more information on the sessions and how to virtually attend.