Press Release
HKBU International Writers’ Workshop hosts Distinguished Writers Series
Renowned American Poet Jane Hirshfield to share creative experience
Monday, 12 October 2026
The International Writers’ Workshop (IWW) at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) will present its 2026 Distinguished Writers Series, featuring Ms Jane Hirshfield, winner of both Peking University’s Zhongkun International Poetry Prize and Poetry magazine’s Poetry in Translation Prize. Ms Hirshfield will participate in a Literary Reading and Conversation with HKBU faculty, students, and the public to inspire literary creativity on 22 October. She will also share her writing insights with HKBU students at a masterclass on 23 October.
Ms Hirshfield’s work has been acclaimed by international media as “some of the most important poetry in the world today”. She is the author of ten collections of poetry, along with two now-classic books of essays on poetry, Nine Gates and Ten Windows. Chinese translations are available for both essay collections and her poetry book The Beauty. A selection of her other works has also been compiled in a Chinese anthology titled I Wanted Only a Little (《我只要少許》). Ms Hirshfield has taught at universities including Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley. She served as the Seamus Heaney International Visiting Poetry Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast in 2022, and was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Divinity School in the spring of 2026. Formerly a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019.
In the fall every year, the IWW’s Distinguished Writers Series honours an esteemed international writer who will give a literary reading and discuss his or her literary works with local writers and readers. IWW also runs a competitive residency programme in spring each year, with an open call for applications from potential writers-in-residence who will be featured at the IWW Literary Festival in March.
Founded in 2004, the IWW is one of the signature programmes of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at HKBU. For more than 20 years, IWW has hosted over 140 writers from more than 55 different countries and regions, and it is one of the few writers-in-residence programmes in Asia. As a self-funded and non-profit initiative, IWW has consistently organised free public events to promote literary and cultural exchanges between the local and the overseas community. Demonstrating HKBU’s commitment to the arts, IWW serves as an important platform for promoting the development of literature in Hong Kong. Please visit the website or Facebook page for further information about IWW activities and writers.
