Clark College’s Columbia Writers Series Kicks Off With Author Ed Park On Nov 5 (Photo) - 10/08/26

Pulitzer Prize finalist Ed Park opens 2026-27 Columbia Writers Series

VANCOUVER, Wash. — The Clark College Columbia Writers Series will begin its 2026–27 season with Ed Park, author of the book Same Bed Different Dreams, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and winner of the Los Angeles TimesBook Prize. Additionally, Park has authored Personal Days, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the story collection An Oral History of Atlantis. His latest book is the memoir Three Tenses: A Transmission from the Nineties. 

This event, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 11 a.m. on Thursday, November 5, in the Penguin Union Building (PUB) Room 258 on Clark College’s main campus, 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver.

Park’s accolades include the Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2025 and the Deborah Pease Prize from the nonprofit publisher A Public Space. He is a founding editor of the literary magazine, The Believer, and currently teaches writing at Princeton University.

EVENT DETAILS

Location: Penguin Union Building 258, Clark College main campus, 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver, WA 98683

Parking: Green or Red lots—view online map and directions here.

Accommodations: If you need accommodations due to a disability to fully participate in this event, please contact Clark College’s Human Resources Office. Phone: 360-992-2105 or email: hr@clark.edu

Clark College expressly prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, perceived or actual physical or mental disability, pregnancy, genetic information, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, creed, religion, honorably discharged veteran or military status, citizenship, immigration status, or use of a trained guide dog or service animal in its programs and activities. Learn more at www.clark.edu/nds.

Fall Columbia Writers Series Events

• Ed Park, author of the book Same Bed Different Dreams and Pulitzer Prize winner, Thursday, Nov 5, 11 am
  (see above)
   

• Debra Magpie Earling, fiction writer, February 2, 2027, 1 p.m.
  Earling is the author of Perma Red and The Lost Journals of Sacajewea, an award-winning novel that challenges dominant narratives of the life of Sacajewea. She has received both a National Endowment for the Arts grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She was the first Native American to serve as director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Montana, where she was recently awarded an honorary doctorate and serves as professor emeritus. Born in Spokane, Washington, she is Bitterroot Salish.
   
• Erica Berry, author and essayist, May 26, 2027, 11 a.m.
  Berry is a writer and teacher based in her hometown of Portland, Oregon. Her essays, which are often about the confluence of emotions and the natural world, appear in The New York Times, The Guardian, National Geographic, Emergence, The Yale Review, and Orion, where she is a contributing editor. She is the author of Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear, which won the Oregon Book Award, and the forthcoming Bodies in Heat: Love in a Changing Climate. Winner of a James Beard Award, Oregon Career Fellowships, and a Spark Award from the Miller Foundation, she was a 2026 Mark and Melody Teppola Presidential Distinguished Visiting Professor at Willamette University.

About Clark’s Columbia Writers Series

The Columbia Writers Series aims to enrich the intellectual and cultural life of Clark College by providing a platform for literature and the arts. Since 1988, the series has brought a diverse array of local, national, and international authors to the campus and the community. Learn more about the Columbia Writers Series.

About Clark College

Founded in 1933, Clark College is Southwest Washington’s largest public institution of higher education. Clark Collegeprovides residents of Southwest Washington with affordable, high-quality academic and technical education. This public community college offers more than 100 degree and certificate programs, including bachelor’s and associate degrees; professional certificates; high school diplomas and GED preparation; and non-credit community and continuing education. Clark serves almost 10,000 students, including high school students, veterans, displaced workers, multilingual and mature learners. About three-quarters of its students are the first in their families to attend college.   

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