The Lindsay J. Cropper Memorial Writers Series Welcomes Fall 2025 Speakers Claire Vaye Watkins and Tom Bissell
The Cropper Center for Creative Writing at the University of San Diego is excited to share a preview of its lineup of readers for the Lindsay J. Cropper Memorial Writers Series for the 2025-2026 academic year. This fall, we will welcome author Claire Vaye Watkins and author Tom Bissell. All events are free and open to the public.
The Annual Barrie Cropper Memorial Lecture on the Craft of Creative Writing: Claire Vaye Watkins.
- Thursday, October 2, 2025, 12:30 p.m. in Learning Commons 107
The Lindsay J. Cropper Memorial Writers Series: Claire Vaye Watkins
- Thursday, October 2, 2025, 6 p.m. in Manchester Hall Auditorium
Claire Vaye Watkins is the author of two novels: I Love You but I’ve Chosen Darkness and Gold Fame Citrus, as well as the short story collection Battleborn, winner of the Story Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the Silver Pen Award from the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame. A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lannan Foundation and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Claire is a professor in the Programs in Writing at the University of California, Irvine. She lives in Orange County and the Mojave Desert.
The Lindsay J. Cropper Memorial Writers Series: Tom Bissell
- Thursday, November 6, 2025, 6 p.m. in Manchester Hall Auditorium
There will be a book signing and dessert reception following the reading.
Tom Bissell was born in Escanaba, Michigan, in 1974. He is the author of eleven books, including The Father of All Things, Extra Lives, Apostle and Creative Types. With Greg Sestero, he cowrote The Disaster Artist, with was a New York Times bestseller and was adapted into an Academy Award-nominated film. As a screenwriter, he cocreated The Mosquito Coast, based on Paul Theroux’s novel of the same name, for Apple TV+ and wrote three episodes for the second and final season of Andor: A Star Wars Story for Disney+. He has also written for numerous video-game franchises, among them Battlefield, Uncharted and Gears of War. His awards include the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a WGA Award for Excellence in Videogame Writing, and nearly a dozen appearances in The Best American series. He lives in Los Angeles with his family.
We thank you for all your ongoing support of the Cropper Writers Series and look forward to seeing you at these events! All are welcome to attend. For more information, please contact the Cropper Center for Creative Writing Director and Professor of English Brad Melekian at melekian@sandiego.edu.
Sponsored by the University of San Diego’s Cropper Center for Creative Writing.
The Lindsay J. Cropper Center for Creative Writing was established at USD in 2004 with a generous gift from Barrie and Dorothy Cropper in memory of their daughter, Lindsay J. Cropper, an alumna of USD, an English major and aspiring writer, who died tragically in 2000. The purpose of the center is to foster the appreciation and practice of creative writing at the University of San Diego by hosting an annual Writers Series, sponsoring a literary journal, promoting the development of writing courses and granting awards for creative writing.