The fall 2025 semester marks 58 years since the Writers Forum began at SUNY Brockport. Held every semester, the Forum brings Rochester-based writers to campus to share pieces of their work and answer questions from attendees in an effort to celebrate writing and introduce the audience to what is possible in the world of writing. Meet and greets with the writers are held after the event’s conclusion.
This semester, the Brockport English department has 5 writers lined up for the event, all coming from diverse and unique backgrounds.
The first fall semester Writers Forum event was held on September 10th, featuring award-winning poetry writer Sarah Freligh. Freligh has written seven prose and poetry books, with the most recent two being “Hereafter”, which is a collection of very short stories that add up to a novella that was released in 2024, and, most recently, the story collection titled Other Emergencies was released in 2025. Both of these titles were met with large amounts of praise. Freligh’s writing awards include two fellowships in poetry, one coming from the National Endowment for the Arts and the other coming from Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts.
The next writer is award-winning novelist Jack Wang. Wang is the author of a story collection titled “We Two Alone” and a novel titled “The Riveter”. The book was awarded a New Yorker “Best Books We Read This Week” choice. Wang is currently a writing professor at Ithaca College.
Following Wang’s appearance will be Rochester-based journalist and author Justin Murphy. Murphy is well known for being the author of “Your Children Are Very Greatly In Danger: School Segregation in Rochester, New York,” which was published in 2022 by Cornell University Press. New York History called his book “a must-read for anyone interested in school integration in general and the history of school integration in Rochester, New York, in particular.” For 12 years, Murphy covered the education beat for the Rochester newspaper, Democrat and Chronicle. Murphy is currently a research and communications coordinator for Our Local History, which is a Rochester area nonprofit centered on local civil rights history.
Distinguished poet Ama Codjoe will host the only Writers Forum event at SUNY Brockport’s downtown campus. Codjoe has won various awards in her time as a writer, such as the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, a Whiting Award, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and a 2024 Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Codjoe’s work has appeared in prominent journals like The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, The Sun and The Nation.
The final author visiting campus this semester will be Sarah Cedeño. Cedeño will present her debut collection of short stories at the Writers Forum. Cedeño is an essayist, editor, teacher and wrote a short story collection titled “The Grand Scheme of Things”, which was released in 2025. Cedeño’s work has appeared in journals such as Brevity, The Baltimore Review, The Rumpus, Hippocampus Magazine and the Bellevue Literary Review.
On December 3rd, the Writers Forum of the semester will look a bit different as it will take the form of an open mic night, allowing any attendees to share their own work. Attendees are encouraged to bring and read any poems, essays or short stories of their own to share.
The next Writers Forum event will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 24th, 2025, featuring Novelist Jack Wang. More information on the Writers Forum events can be found on SUNY Brockport’s website here and here.
