ODU Arts

10/07/2026

Tomorrow is the final day of the Literary Festival! At 12:30 p.m., join Mecca Jamilah Sullivan for A Conversation on Craft in the Burgess Room (BAL 9024). At 2 p.m., head to the University Theatre for an Alumni Reading featuring Emma Comery, Bob Kunzinger, Richard Leise, and Caleb True.

At 4 p.m., celebrate the launch of the Brackish Waters and Constellate anthologies at ODU Perry Library. At 6 p.m., see the finished games from Room to Wonder: A Game Jam in Monarch Hall, Room 2116. Finally, stop by University Theatre at 7 p.m. for a reading by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan

All events are free and open to the public. Check out the full festival schedule at odu.edu/litfest 📖

10/04/2026

Continue enjoying the literary festivities on Monday, October 5, with an afternoon and evening of readings featuring local authors, ODU professors emeriti, and Edith & Forrest P. White Writer-in-Residence. Join Nicole Glover and Kimbra Drake at 2 p.m., Joe Jackson and Michael Patrick Pearson at 4 p.m., and Hanif Abdurraqib at 7 p.m., all at the University Theatre. We'd love to see you there!

All events are free and open to the public. Check out the full festival schedule at odu.edu/litfest 📖

10/03/2026

Join us as we kick off the Literary Festival at our opening reception at The Green Onion on Sunday, October 4 at 4:00 p.m.! We are beyond excited to celebrate with you, and we hope to see you there.

All events are free and open to the public. Check out the full festival schedule at odu.edu/litfest

10/02/2026

10/02/2026

Join us for the launch party for both the Brackish Waters and Constellate anthologies at 4 p.m. on Thursday, October 8! Come celebrate the authors and poets featured in these two anthologies at ODU’s Perry Library.

All events are free and open to the public. Check out the full festival schedule at odu.edu/litfest

09/30/2026

Literary Festival swag incoming! We will have merch available at select events during the festival. Visit the Arts@ODU table during the following events:

--> Monday, October 5 at 7:00 p.m.: Edith & Forrest P. White Writer-in-Residence Reading: Hanif Abdurraqib. University Theatre.

--> Thursday, October 8 at 7:00 p.m: Reading by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan. University Theatre.

T-shirts, pens, and stickers are free. Dad hats are $25 + tax and all sales support Literary Festival programming. Items available while supplies last 🎁

Literary Festival Committee left to right: Michael Weber & John McManus (Co-Directors), Evelyn Griffith, Claudia Kessel, Clara Synowiec, Caitlin Brady, Winnie Wong, Sarah Glaser

Not pictured but also on the committee is Charles Rhodes

09/29/2026

Join us Thursday, October 1 at 7:30 p.m. for the ODU Symphony Orchestra: Mozart, Schumann & Strauss concert at University Theatre! Discover or rediscover iconic musical treasures from the Austro-German classical orchestral tradition: Wolfgang Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro Overture, Richard Strauss’s First Horn Concerto, and Robert Schumann’s “Rhenish” Third Symphony. Featuring Virginia Symphony Orchestra Horn Principal and ODU horn professor Jacob Wilder as soloist. Paul Sanho Kim, conductor.

Tickets are available at ODUArtsTix.com 🎫

09/28/2026

Join us Thursday, October 8 at 2 p.m. in University Theatre for a reading by Emma Comery!

Emma Comery is a multidisciplinary writer and the recipient of the Cantrell Poetry Prize and the Col. Darron L. Wright Memorial Writing Award. Her work has appeared on Poets.org and in Arts & Letters Journal, Line of Advance, The Bend Magazine, and Military Families Magazine. Have You Landed? Military Love Stories In Essays is her debut essay collection.

All events are free and open to the public. Check out the full festival schedule at odu.edu/litfest 📖

09/25/2026

On October 6 - 7, join us at Eastern Virginia Medical School for a reading, workshop, and celebration with author Chris Adrian!

Chris Adrian is the author of four novels: Gob's Grief (2000), The Children's Hospital (2006), The Great Night (2011), and The New World (2014). In 2008, he published A Better Angel, a collection of short stories. His short fiction has also appeared in The Paris Review, Zoetrope, Ploughshares, McSweeney's, The New Yorker, The Best American Short Stories, and Story. Adrian completed his bachelor's degree in English from the University of Florida in 1993. He received his M.D. from Eastern Virginia Medical School in 2001.

All events are free and open to the public. Check out the full festival schedule and sign up for the workshop at odu.edu/litfest 📖