Academics

Visiting Writers

The Michael Cervas Visiting Writers Program is named in honor of Michael Cervas who taught English from 1986-2020 and who initiated two longstanding visiting writers programs: The Westminster Poet Series and the Fridays at Westminster series of readings. The Michael Cervas Visiting Writers Program is supported by generous gifts from the Ford-Goldfarb English Department Enrichment Fund, the Gordon McKinley Visiting Writers Fund, and the Fridays at Westminster Fund.

About Michael Cervas

During his 34-year tenure on the Westminster faculty, Michael taught all levels of English; coached basketball, soccer, track, baseball, golf and squash; worked as a corridor supervisor in Alumni House; and presided as department head for three decades. Having retired from his full-time appointment to the faculty at the end of the 2019-2020 academic year, Michael continues to direct the Visiting Writers Program.

Gordon McKinley Fridays at Westminster

The Gordon McKinley Fridays at Westminster series began in 2009-2010 to coincide with the opening of the Armour Academic Center. Held six times a year (twice each trimester), the program invites writers to campus for a Thursday evening reading followed by Friday morning visits with English classes. English teachers typically introduce students to the visiting writers’ works in advance, fostering an informed audience.

The series has featured nationally renowned poets, essayists, novelists, jazz musicians, and singer-songwriters, including Jennifer Egan, Ron Carlson, Emily St. John Mandel, Anthony Doerr, Monica Wood, Dar Williams, Kris Delmhorst, Nat Reeves, and Mark Erelli. Local talents like Colin McEnroe, Rand Richards Cooper, Lynn Hoffman, Jonathan Gilman, Gina Barreca, and Rob Duguay have also participated. Each evening begins with a reading by a student or faculty member.

The series is named for Gordon McKinley, a Westminster faculty member from 1956–1986 who chaired the English department and taught creative writing and public speaking. The program is supported by the Gordon McKinley Fridays at Westminster Fund, endowed by Nathan Hayward ‘61.

2026-27 Schedule

List of 1 items.

Fridays at Westminster 2026-27

Westminster Poet Series

The Westminster Poet Series began in 1999 when Linda Pastan, at the time the Poet Laureate of the State of Maryland, came to Westminster to give an evening reading and visit with English classes the following day. The second poet in the series was Billy Collins, who had just been named United States Poet Laureate. Since then, the school has welcomed award-winning poets from all around the United States to campus for two-day visits. Westminster Poets have been United States Poets Laureate, State of Connecticut Poets Laureate, Pulitzer Prize winners, and National Book Award winners.

Carrie Fountain Named Westminster Poet for 2026-2027

Carrie Fountain is a poet, novelist, and educator born and raised in Mesilla, New Mexico, where her family’s multicultural history runs deep. She is the author of three acclaimed poetry collections—The Life, Instant Winner, and Burn Lake, the latter of which won the 2009 National Poetry Series Award. Her young adult novel, I’m Not Missing, was a Bustle Best YA Book of July 2018, and she is also the author of the children’s book The Poem Forest, about poet W.S. Merwin. She is currently adapting I’m Not Missing for the screen, writing a second YA novel, and completing a new poetry collection.

Fountain’s work explores themes of place, memory, history, motherhood, and identity, often weaving narrative into poems that search for spiritual meaning in everyday life. Her upbringing in rural New Mexico—marked by adobe houses, unpaved roads, and ditch-fishing as a child—deeply informs her writing. She’s described poetry as a way to “make sense of the experience of being in the world,” and sees writing from the perspective of a woman and mother as a powerful political act.

Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, Tin House, and other major journals. She has received honors including the Marlboro Poetry Prize, the Austin Library Foundation’s Award for Literary Excellence, and induction into the Texas Institute of Letters. In 2019, she was named Texas State Poet Laureate. Fountain also hosts This Is Just to Say, a podcast and radio show from KUT featuring intimate conversations with leading writers. She teaches creative writing nationwide and earned her MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at UT Austin.

Here are a few of her poems:

List of 2 items.

Time to Be in the Fine Line of Light

between the blind and the sill, nothing
really. There are so many things
that destroy. To think solely of them
is as foolish and expedient as not
thinking of them at all. All I want
is to be the river though I return
again and again to the clouds.
All I want is to stop beginning sentences
with All I want. No—no really all
I want is this morning: my daughter
and my son saying “Da!” back and forth
over breakfast, cracking each other up
while eating peanut butter toast
and raspberries, making a place for
the two of them I will, eventually,
no longer be allowed to enter. Time to be
the fine line. Time to practice being
the line. And then maybe the darkness.
Want

The wasps outside
the kitchen window
are making that
thick, unraveling sound
again, floating in
and out of the bald head
of their nest,
seeming not to move
while moving,
and it has just occurred
to me, standing,
washing the coffeepot,
watching them hang
loosely in the air—thin
wings; thick, elongated
abdomens; sad, down—
pointing antennae—
that this
is the heart’s constant
project: this simple
learning; learning
how to hold
hopelessness
and hope together;
to see on the unharmed
surface of one
the great scar
of the other; to recognize
both and to make
something of both;
to desire everything
and nothing
at once and to desire it
all the time;
and to contain that desire
fleshly, in a body;
to wash it and rest it
and feed it; to learn
its name and from whence
it came; and to speak
to it—oh, most of all
to speak to it—
every day, every day,
saying to one part,
“Well, maybe this is all
you get,” while saying
to the other, “Go on,
break it open, let it go.”
List of 2 items.
Time To Be In The Fine of Light
between the blind and the sill, nothing
really. There are so many things
that destroy. To think solely of them
is as foolish and expedient as not
thinking of them at all. All I want
is to be the river though I return
again and again to the clouds.
All I want is to stop beginning sentences
with All I want. No—no really all
I want is this morning: my daughter
and my son saying “Da!” back and forth
over breakfast, cracking each other up
while eating peanut butter toast
and raspberries, making a place for
the two of them I will, eventually,
no longer be allowed to enter. Time to be
the fine line. Time to practice being
the line. And then maybe the darkness.
Want
The wasps outside
the kitchen window
are making that
thick, unraveling sound
again, floating in

Westminster Poets

Connect

995 Hopmeadow Street
Simsbury, CT 06070

P. (860) 408-3000
F. (860) 408-3001

Explore

Notice of Nondiscriminatory Policy as to Students

In keeping with our support for a diverse community, Westminster abides by all applicable federal and state laws and does not discriminate on the basis of any protected characteristic, including race, color, religious creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national and ethnic origin, ancestry and/or disability in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs. Westminster admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School.

AP® and Advanced Placement® are registered trademarks of the College Board. Used with permission.