Students will have the chance to hear three Grand Valley State University writing professors share some of their own work tonight at 7 p.m. in the Cook-DeWitt Center as part of the GVSU Writers Series.

Assistant writing professors Caitlin Horrocks, Amorak Huey and Oindrila Mukherjee were chosen for this year’s faculty reading.

For tonight’s reading, they selected their pieces with an echoing theme in mind so the different genres are all intertwined, which Horrocks said should be more interesting for the audience.

“In traditional readings, you can zone out or lose track of a plot and this will be a lot of different short pieces and a lot of things going on,” Horrocks said.

The three professors said they don’t usually share their own writing in class, but are excited to read these pieces to students, faculty and staff.

“It will be great fun to see how they respond to it and what they think,” Mukherjee said. “I’m really excited to be reading with my super talented colleagues. It will be quite fun.”

Huey said students really benefit from the Writers Series by hearing other writers read their work out loud, and then sharing their own stuff too.

“Part of being a good creative writer is, sort of, understanding how words sound when read out loud,” Huey said. “Having a sense of how words sound when they’re read out loud and the effect they have on the audience when you read them out loud is good for any writer.”

It also helps students get to know their professors better and on a different level.

“It’s an opportunity for our students to sort of see if we can put our money where our mouth is,” Horrocks said. “We talk about writing, we talk about giving readings and here’s a moment where we put ourselves on the line as writers and performers.”

Huey writes mostly poetry and will be reading between 10 and 12 poems, while Horrocks and Mukherjee are both reading prose. Mukherjee chose several excerpts from her new novel, “The Extraordinary Sins of Ordinary Indians,” and Horrocks picked a couple pieces of flash fiction.

“I am a terrible poet,” Horrocks said. “I write fiction and creative non-fiction and that is all anyone would want to hear from me.”

Writing department faculty take turns managing the GVSU Writers Series, which brings accomplished writers to campus to share their work and interact with students. Horrocks was chosen this year and said the faculty usually looks forward to helping out with the series.

Mukherjee just joined the writing department last semester and said she is very excited to work with her very talented colleagues on this reading series.

“Everyone here is very accomplished and passionate and push each other to do more and do better,” Mukherjee said. “It will be quite useful and constructive.”

For more information about the series and future readings, go to the writing department’s website, www.gvsu.edu/writing, or email Caitlin Horrocks at horrockc@gvsu.edu.

sallen@lanthorn.com