The Hub City Writers Project is pleased to announce that Rachel Harkai of Ann Arbor, Michigan, will be our 2007-2008 writer in residence. She will come to Spartanburg June 1 as part of the HUB-BUB Artists-in-Residence Program where she will "live free and create" for 11 months in our downtown building with three visual artists. Rachel, 22, is a winner of an unprecedented four Hopwood Awards from the University of Michigan, two in poetry and two in non-fiction. The Hopwood is one of the premier creative writing prizes in America and past winners include Arthur Miller and Frank O'Hara.

She received two bachelor's degrees from Michigan, one in Creative Writing and one in Comparative Literature. While at Michigan, she served as the host and producer of the Living Writers Show, a literary talk show on WCBN-FM 88.3 Ann Arbor. Her interviews have included conversations with Poets Laureate, Pulitzer Prize winners, MacArthur Award winners, presidential candidates and senators, all of whom share a commitment to literature and a willingness to participate in substantive conversation on-the-air about writing and the writing life.

For three years she served as a percussionist with the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra and more recently as an intern with the University Musical Society, a non-profit that presents 60 to 75 performances a year. She is a native of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Welcome, Rachel!