Writers@Grinnell Welcomes Benjamin Percy and Aubrey Hirsch on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023

Benjamin Percy

Benjamin Percy is the author of seven novels, the most recent among them The Sky Vault (William Morrow, 2023). He is also the author of The Unfamiliar Garden (Mariner Books/William Morrow, 2022), The Ninth Metal (Mariner Books, 2021), The Dead Lands (Grand Central/Hachette, 2015), Red Moon (Grand Central/Hachette, 2013), and The Wilding (Graywolf Press, 2010), as well as three books of short stories, Suicide Woods (Graywolf Press, 2019),  Refresh, Refresh (Graywolf Press, 2007), and The Language of Elk (Grand Central/Hachette, 2012; Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2006).

His craft book — Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction — was published by Graywolf Press in 2016 and is now widely taught in creative writing classrooms.

He broke into comics in 2014, with a two-issue Batman story arc for Detective Comics. He is known for his celebrated runs on Nightwing, Green Arrow, Teen Titans, and James Bond. He currently writes Wolverine, X-Force, and Ghost Rider for Marvel Comics. He also writes Devil’s Highway and Year Zero for AWA Studios.

His fiction and nonfiction have been read on National Public Radio, performed at Symphony Space, and published by Esquire, GQ, Time, Men’s Journal, Outside, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, and Tin House.

He co-wrote the feature film, Summering, with director James Ponsoldt. Produced by Bleeker Street and Sony’s Stage 3, it made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival and will go into wide release this summer.

He is also currently working with Ponsoldt at Paramount Plus, where they are adapting Urban Cowboy into a series.

He wrote two, 10-episode seasons of the audio drama “Wolverine,” which are presently streaming now on all podcast apps. “The Long Night” was listed as one of the top 15 podcasts of the year by Apple and won the iHeart Radio Award for best scripted podcast in 2018. His latest podcast is Wastelanders: Old Man Starlord (produced by Marvel and SiriusXM/Pandora), a post-apocalyptic take on the Guardians of the Galaxy that stars Timothy Busfield, Chris Elliot, Vanessa Williams, and Danny Glover.

His honors include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Whiting Writers’ Award, two Pushcart Prizes, the Plimpton Prize, a McKnight fellowship, and inclusion in Best American Short Stories and Best American Comics. And his story “Refresh, Refresh” was included in 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories.

He is a member of the WGA screenwriters’ guild and has sold scripts to Paramount, FOX, Sony, and Starz. He currently has several film and TV projects in development.

Aubrey Hirsch

Aubrey Hirsch is a writer and illustrator living in New York. Her stories, essays, and comics have appeared in The New York Times, Vox, TIME Magazine, American Short Fiction, Black Warrior Review, The Rumpus, The Nib and elsewhere. She is the author of a short story collection, Why We Never Talk About Sugar, and a flash fiction chapbook, This Will Be His Legacy.

She also teach writing classes online and in person. She’s taught in bachelor’s and master’s of fine arts programs at Oberlin College, The University of Pittsburgh, Colorado College, Georgia College and State University, and Chatham University.

She is the recipient of a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in Literature, an individual artist award from the Sustainable Arts Foundation, the Daehler Fellowship in Creative Writing from The Colorado College, and The Meek Award for Graphic Nonfiction from The Florida Review.