Oct. 29: Minnesota State Mankato’s 2026-2027 Good Thunder Reading Series Continues with Visit from Robert C. Wright Minnesota Writer in Residence Danez Smith
Mankato, Minn. – Minnesota State University, Mankato’s 2026-2027 Good Thunder Reading Series will host author and Robert C. Wright Minnesota Writer in Residence Danez Smith on Thursday, Oct. 29 in the series’ second event of the 2026-2027 academic year. In addition, Minnesota State Mankato graduate student Kaleesia Neverson, who received the University’s Robert C. Wright Minnesota Writer’s Scholarship, will read from her work in the evening of Oct. 29.
All of the events are free and open to the public.
Oct. 29 schedule:
- 10-11 a.m. – Workshop, Memorial Library, first floor.
- 3-3:50 p.m. – Craft Talk, Centennial Student Union, Ostrander Auditorium. Books available for purchase.
- 7:30-8:15 p.m. – Smith and Neverson will read from their work at the Carnegie Art Center, 120 S. Broad St., Mankato. Books available for purchase.
The following information about the writers was provided by the Good Thunder Reading Series: Smith is the author of numerous collections, including “Don’t Call Us Dead,” “Homie,” “Bluff,” and most recently, “Love, Time.” They are also the curator of “Blues In Stereo: The Early Works of Langston Hughes.” For their work, Smith has won the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the Minnesota Book Award in Poetry, the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and have been a finalist for the NAACP Image Award in Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Book Award, as well as an array of grants, fellowships and residencies, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the Princeton Arts Fellowship. Smith teaches at the Randolph College MFA program and the Black Youth Healing Arts Center in St. Paul and lives in Minneapolis with their people.
Neverson is a native of Tampa, Florida, who is obsessed with stories and words trying to explore family, life in the south and storms. Neverson currently resides in Minnesota, where she is a third-year MFA student and managing editor of the Blue Earth Review.
Founded in 1981, the Good Thunder Reading Series brings nationally and internationally acclaimed writers from diverse backgrounds and literary traditions to Mankato, Minnesota, with the goal of promoting access to great literature, inspiring creativity, and connections in our communities, and fostering lively conversations about how writers work and why writing matters.
The 2026-27 Good Thunder Reading Series is made possible through a Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council grant as well as Minnesota State Mankato’s Department of Creative Arts; College of Humanities and Social Sciences; the Nadine B. Andreas Endowment; the Eddice B. Barber Visiting Writer Endowment; the Robert C. Wright Endowment; Friends of the Library; and individual donors.
For more information or to get involved, contact Robin Becker, a creative writing faculty member at Minnesota State Mankato, at robin.becker@mnsu.edu, or visit gt.mnsu.edu.
Minnesota State Mankato, a comprehensive university with 14,958 students, is part of the Minnesota State system, which includes 26 colleges and seven universities.
