In the Writers’ Studio: on friendship with former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky & William Miller
Friday, March 6, 2026 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM EST
Arts Club of Washington, 2017 I St NW
The Cheuse Center and the Arts Club of Washington bring you four evenings in celebration of the craft of writing and the art of living, inaugurated by former Poet Laureate, Robert Pinsky.
Buy your tickets here.
On March 6th, 2026, the series will be inaugurated by former US Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, who went to Rutgers with Alan Cheuse and was a close friend of his for their entire adult lives. Alan Cheuse was NPRs book critic for 30 years. Pinksy will chat with William Miller, friend and colleague of Alan Cheuse’s, as well as co-founder of the Cheuse Center. The studio will also feature Alan Cheuse’s students, writer Britany Kerfoot, and Lina Patton whose novel ‘The Lake Club’ releases in the summer of 2026.
Date: Friday 6th March, 2026
Time: 7:30 reception and dinner; 8:30-9:30 program
Tickets: $50 ($40 for club members)
Location: Second Floor, the Arts Club. This venue has no elevator to the second floor; please contact us if this is an issue.
This fireside chat will include a discussion, audience participation, food, wine, and a mini lesson on craft. Doors open at 7:30pm with a wine and food reception. The chat will be from 8:30-9:30pm and we will have some wonderful audience giveaways.
The series: This series is in celebration of the tenth year anniversary of the Cheuse Center. We have created an opportunity for audiences to celebrate and contemplate their own purpose and joy, through special pairings with esteemed writers, celebrating book critic and teacher Alan Cheuse. Throughout his teaching career Cheuse held small dinner workshops and talked about life and craft with students and colleagues. His students Lina Patton and Brittany Kerfoot found them so inspiring, they decided to bring the format to the Arts Club, as fireside chats, celebrating their beloved teacher, Alan Cheuse as friend, writer, critic, and teacher.
About Robert Pinsky:
Robert Pinsky’s recent book of poems is Proverbs of Limbo. His PoemJazz album of the same title is available on Spotify. His autobiographical prose book is Jersey Breaks. Among his books about poetry are Democracy, Culture and the Voice of Poetry and The Sounds of Poetry. His best-selling translation is The Inferno of Dante. As United States Poet Laureate (1997-2000), Pinsky founded the Favorite Poem Project, with brief videos in which thousands of American readers, of varying backgrounds, ages, and regions, read poems they admire by writers such as Elizabeth Bishop, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Pablo Neruda, Frank O’Hara, and Walt Whitman.
About William Miller:
William Miller directed the creative writing program at George Mason University for more than two-dozen years until his retirement in 2018. During that time, he helped establish the Cheuse Center, the Fall for the Book literary festival, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree program in creative writing, and Stillhouse Press. Negotiations to bring the Poetry Daily web-based contemporary poetry distribution program to Mason began in his last year in the director’s position. He serves on the board of Fall for the Book, and is the current board chair of the Cheuse Center. He is a host of the podcast Upstart Crow, which has done indeph interviews with Cheuse Center
About Kris O' Shee:
Kris O'Shee spent four decades as a modern dancer and choreographer, including a decade in London, where she cofounded Junction Dance Company and taught at the London Contemporary Dance School. After returning to the US, she taught and performed in the San Francisco Bay Area before taking a position on the dance faculty at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. She then moved to Washington, DC, to live with her husband, Alan Cheuse, and founded O’Shee Dances, through which she continued choreographing and performing. In the last two decades, O’Shee earned a certificate in massage therapy and a graduate degree in psychology. She currently has a private practice in psychotherapy in DC, where she resides.
About Lina Patton:
Lina Patton is a writer, illustrator, and teacher. Originally from Maine, she moved to Minnesota at thirteen, trading the ocean for 10,000 lakes. She holds a BA from Elon University and an MFA from George Mason University. Her work has appeared in ELLE, The Cut, Narrative Magazine, and Driftwood Press, among others. After seven years living abroad, she and her husband currently reside in Washington, DC, where she co-produces the storytelling series Generation Women and teaches at George Washington University. The Lake Club is her first novel.
About Brittany Kerfoot:
Brittany Kerfoot received a BA in English and an MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University. She is a former student of Alan Cheuse and shares his love of voracious reading and, thanks largely to his encouragement during her time in graduate school, a dedicated fiction writer. Brittany is currently the co-producer and host of Generation Women DC, a multigenerational storytelling series in the District, and a writing and literature instructor for Politics and Prose Bookstore. She is at work on her first novel.
