Author Tita Ramirez is an Associate Professor at nearby Elon University.
Her widely acclaimed debut novel, Tell It to Me Singing, was published in 2024.
“Having Tita on campus continues our tradition of introducing to Guilford students professional writers that are at different points in their career, with diverse backgrounds and across genres.”
Tita Ramirez, whose debut novel Tell It to Me Singing was widely acclaimed, will give a fiction reading at Guilford Thursday, April 9, as the College’s latest Sherwood Anderson Distinguished Visiting Writer.
The reading is at 6 pm in the Orangerie next to Binford Hall on campus. It is free and open to the community, and parking is available in a lot beside the residence hall. A book signing and refreshments will follow the reading.
“We’re so excited to welcome Tita to Guilford as our Sherwood Anderson Distinguished Visiting Writer,” says Cynthia Nearman, Chair of the English & Creative Writing Department and coordinator of the Sherwood Anderson Creative Writing Program. “Having Tita on campus continues our tradition of introducing to Guilford students professional writers that are at different points in their career, with diverse backgrounds and across genres.”
In addition to the public reading, Tita will conduct a writing craft workshop for students on Wednesday, April 8, and will visit with English & Creative Writing majors over lunch on April 9.
Tita grew up in Miami, Fla., and is the daughter of a Cuban exile and a Kentucky native. She teaches creative writing as an Associate Professor of English at Elon University, and her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in LitHub, The Normal School, Black Warrior Review and elsewhere.
Tell It to Me Singing (Simon & Schuster, 2024) is a compelling story set in Miami that delves into family secrets, identity and the Cuban American experience. Tita spent more than a decade researching and writing the novel.
With a gift to Guilford in 2014, the Sherwood Anderson Foundation established the Sherwood Anderson Creative Writing Program at the College. Sherwood was a leading figure in 20th-century American letters who was dedicated to encouraging the work of fellow writers.
The Anderson program supports the Distinguished Visiting Writer Series as well as scholarships in Guilford’s English & Creative Writing Department.
Previous visiting writers have included A. Van Jordan in 2023, Holly Goddard Jones in 2022, Mylène Dressler in 2022, Terrance Hayes in 2020, Kate Bernheimer in 2019, Ada Limón in 2018, Allan Gurganus in 2017 and Naomi Shihab Nye in 2016.