The Drew University writers series welcomes Meg Fernandes, Temim Fruchter, and Isle McElroy
February 2025 – Drew University’s Writers@Drew kicked off the spring semester with a special Queer Literature Panel, featuring authors Megan Fernandes, Temim Fruchter, and Isle McElroy.
Megan Fernandes is an associate professor of English and writer-in-residence at Lafayette College, teaching poetry, creative nonfiction, and critical theory. She has published in The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, Tin House, Ploughshares, the Academy of American Poets, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, among others. Her third book of poetry, I Do Everything I’m Told, was named a best book of 2023 by The New Yorker, Time Magazine, Vogue, The Boston Globe, Electric Lit, and LitHub, among others.
Temim Fruchter holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Maryland, and is the recipient of fellowships from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Vermont Studio Center, and a 2020 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers Award. She is co-host of Pete’s Reading Series. Her debut novel, City of Laughter is a New York Times Editors’ Pick.
Isle McElroy’s debut novel, The Atmospherians, was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice. Their second novel, People Collide, was a New York Times Critics’ Pick and named one of the best books of 2023 by Vulture, Vogue, NPR, and elsewhere. McEloy has published work in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, The Cut, GQ, The Atlantic, and Tin House.
The three authors shared powerful excerpts from their work, followed by a Q&A discussion with the student audience. The event was moderated by Associate Professor of English and Director of Drew’s Creative Writing Program Courtney Zoffness, who opened the Q&A session by asking the panelists how they think of queer literature.
“When I read work that feels queer, it’s permissive—I feel like anything goes and often feels excessive, dense,” said Fruchter. She recalled her experience reading Red by Anne Carson. “That was the first writing I read that I consciously thought that writing can be a desire manifest.”
One student asked Fruchter how she prepares character evolution. “You start with the big picture and you get more and more granular until it feels like there’s something dimensional,” she answered.
The authors were asked if they set out to write queer literature, or if their writing reflects queerness because they are queer.
“I don’t consider identity in any way when I’m writing,” answered McElroy. “Whatever message I am trying to get across is going to be filtered by the way I’m living my life.”
“I don’t think I’m foregrounding identity in my own process,” replied Fruchter. “One of my favorite things about being queer is that queer people is that they insist on more, and insist on possibilities. I want my books to do that, it create a little bit of possibilities where there wasn’t before.”
“It’s hard to be queer, it’s not a decorative thing,” said Fernandes. “It feels like a gift on the best days and a risk on the worst days. My writing was always queer.”
The free event was co-sponsored by The Casement Fund and Drew’s English Department.
