Please join us Homecoming weekend for the third annual Knox is Lit! An Alumni Reading!
FEATURED READERS:
JoAnna Novak
Joseph Lennon
Yvonne C. Murphy
Adam Soto
ALSO FEATURING:
Live art by Joren Lindholm, and live music by Andy Crawford, Marc Piane, and Zoe Rose.
DETAILS:
Location: Whitcomb Arts Center, Knox College campus
Time: 1:30-3:30 p.m.,
Date: Saturday, October 11th, 2025.
Featured readers will go first (from 1:30-2:30), then immediately following (from 2:30-3:30) there will be an informal reception with live music, book signing, and mingling!
Drinks and light snacks will be served!
Hope to see you there!
Featured Performers and Book Links for Knox is Lit! 2025:
Readers:
JoAnna Novak is the author of seven books, most recently, Domestirexia: Poems. Her short story collection Meaningful Work won the Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Contest and was published by FC2. She is also the author of the memoir, Contradiction Days: An Artist on the Verge of Motherhood; the novel I Must Have You; and three additional books of poetry: New Life; Abeyance, North America; and Noirmania. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and other publications.
Domestirexia: Poems, published by Soft Skull Press
https://bookshop.org/p/books/domestirexia-poems-joanna-novak/20715147?ean=9781593767631&next=t
Contradiction Days, published by Catapult
https://bookshop.org/p/books/contradiction-days-an-artist-on-the-verge-of-motherhood-joanna-novak/18973228?ean=9781646220762&next=t
Joseph Lennon is Professor of English and Emily C. Riley Director of the Center for Irish Studies at Villanova University. His forthcoming book, Marion Wallace-Dunlop and the Origins of the Hunger Strike, will be published in 2026. In addition to his scholarship, he has published poetry in New Hibernia Review, Poetry Ireland, Natural Bridge, and Denver Quarterly; and Salmon Poetry published his collection Fell Hunger in 2011. Lennon is now completing a new book of poems, and is the 2025 winner of the Charlotte Miller Simon Poetry Contest, administered by Ardmore Library.
Fell Hunger, published by Salmon Poetry
https://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Salmon-Poetry-Joseph-Lennon/dp/1907056610
Yvonne C. Murphy is Professor of Arts and Media at SUNY Empire State University, where she teaches Creative Writing and Visual Art. She Co-Chairs and co-developed the ESU bachelor's degree in Creative Writing and often teaches workshops for The Writer’s Center at the Downtown YMCA of Syracuse. Her first book of poetry, AVIARIES, was selected by Minnie Bruce Pratt for the Carolina Wren Press Book Award. Yvonne's poems have been published widely in U.S. and Canadian literary journals. She lives in Cazenovia, NY.
Aviaries, published by Blair
https://blairpub.com/shop/p/aviaries?rq=aviaries
Adam Soto (2010, Art History/ Creative Writing) is the author of This Weightless World and Concerning Those Who Have Fallen Asleep: Ghost Stories. A former Michener-Copernicus Foundation fellow, he holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He lives in Austin with his wife, where he is a teacher, a musician, and a senior editor at American Short Fiction. He is also the director of the Insider Prize, a literary award for incarcerated writers in Texas. He is currently revising his second novel, PORTRAIT MIRROR, about a pair of doppelgänger actresses.
This Weightless World, published by Astra House
https://bookshop.org/p/books/this-weightless-world-adam-soto/18608811?ean=9781662600630&next=t
Concerning Those Who Have Fallen Asleep: Ghost Stories, published by Astra House
https://bookshop.org/p/books/concerning-those-who-have-fallen-asleep-ghost-stories-adam-soto/18304577?ean=9781662601354&next=t&affiliate=55286
Artist:
Joren Lindholm ‘95 is a painter, collage artist and art educator based in Vermont and Washington, DC. At first simply a painter, Joren’s collage method became a regular feature after years of color theory and media exploration. Ever since his training at the New York Studio School of Drawing in the late 1990s, Joren has enjoyed teaching drawing and painting to groups and individuals of all ages. For the last 20 years, Joren has been a faculty member of the Washington Studio School and part of the exhibiting artist collective Painting in New York. As an avid fan of rhythm and improvisation, Joren’s ethos has long been consistent with methodological exploration, instant-composition and collaboration. Coinciding with his thirty-year class reunion, the artist’s participation at 2025 Knox is Lit! will be his first composition set to music in a public setting. Joren holds a BA from Knox College and an MFA in Painting from The American University in Washington, DC.
Musicians:
Bassist & guitarist Andy Crawford ’00 is the managing director of the Music Performance Program at Knox College. In addition to directing the Cherry St Combo and Jazz Bass lessons, he is the first stop for anything music related at Knox. Andy performs regularly with multiple groups throughout the state and has been featured on dozens of recordings. Andy is a member of Matt Wilson’s Prairie 3, the Derel Monteith Trio, Harry Tonchev Trio, the Brazilianaires, John Miller and the Romaniacs and more. Andy is also one of the organizers of the San Pancho Music Festival in Nayarit, Mexico, an annual 3 day festival in its 19th year that welcomes over 5000 attendees and features 30 musical groups over 3 days every February. Crawford is a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala (2004-2006) and returns occasionally, leading student immersion groups.
Marc Piane is a versatile and respected figure in the Chicago music community, whose journey began with a 1996 graduation from Knox College. For decades, Marc has been a mainstay of the city's vibrant jazz scene, anchoring the rhythm section for numerous ensembles and notably serving as the bassist for the renowned Chris Greene Quartet. Beyond the stage, Marc works as a composer, recording engineer and producer, and a passionate educator.
Zoë Rose ('21) began her singing career at Knox College as the lead vocalist for the Cherry Street Combo, performing for three years while studying studio art and graphic design. Known for her soulful and playful presence, she blends jazz, blues, R&B, and neo-soul with ease as both a singer and songwriter. Since graduating, Zoë has collaborated with a range of local musicians and now performs regularly with the Zoë Rose Trio and Zoë Rose and Friends. Offstage, she serves as the Education Coordinator and Exhibitions Coordinator/Registrar at the Galesburg Community Arts Center, where she continues to bring arts and community together.
Also check out other Arts events in Galesburg, Music events in Galesburg, Literary Art events in Galesburg.
