ECC Writers Center Reading Series: Fall 2025

Elgin Community College’s (ECC) Writers Center will host its Fall 2025 Reading Series featuring poet and educator Diego Baez, novelist and Mexico City artist Gerardo Sámano Córdova, and essayist/memoirist Rachel Cohen.

New Writers Center Director Joshua Thusat said he aims for a “healthy mix of genres” each semester. Thusat said it can be challenging to identify artists to include and invite to the series. This time around, he witnessed students reading and raving about Sámano Córdova’s debut horror novel “Monstrilio,” which inspired the fall lineup.

“I wasn’t aware of it,” Thusat said. “After the fourth student told me about this book, I thought, ‘Great! They’re all reading this book, [so] maybe we should reach out to the author.’”

Sámano Córdova will visit ECC on Wednesday, October 29, for a craft workshop from 2 to 3:15 pm in Building C, Room 120 (where you can enter through the library). Later at 7 pm in the Community Room (Building B, Room 181), there will be a conversation and reading from his debut novel, “Monstrilio.”

Rounding out the series: 

Diego Baez — Wednesday, September 17

• Craft workshop: 2 to 3:15 pm, Building C, Room 120
  
  
• Conversation and reading from his poetry collection “Yaguarete White”: 6 pm, Building B, Room 181

Rachel Cohen — Thursday, November 13

• Craft workshop: 2 to 3:15 pm, Building C, Room 120
  
  
• Conversation and reading: 7 pm, Community Room, Building B, Room 181

Cohen’s first book, “A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers and Artists,” is a New York Review Books Classics Book Club selection.

For more information about the Reading Series, visit the ECC Writers Center website.