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Bauder Writer-In-Residence

HoCoPoLitSo works with the Howard County Public Schools System to provide a writer-in-residence for high schools. The Bauder Writer-In-Residence visits each of the county’s high schools over the course of the school year to work with students in writing workshops.

HoCoPoLitSo is pleased to announce that its long-standing Bauder Writer-in-Residence and school programs are now significantly supported by a generous endowment from Dr. Lillian Bauder, community leader and resident of Columbia known for investing in educational access and advancement. Since the 1960’s, Lillian and her late husband Don have been engaged in civil rights and social justice efforts, and have supported the arts.

Meet the 2025 – 2026 Bauder Writer-In-Residence: Karen Outen

Karen Outen (Photo credit to Shala W. Graham)

Karen Outen’s debut novel, Dixon, Descending (Dutton, 2024) was a Library Journal Editor’s Pick and was longlisted for both the Crook’s Corner Book Prize and the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. She is a recipient of the Careers in the Making Fellowship from the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan, the 2018 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers Award, and Pew Fellowship in the Arts.

Karen’s fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train,
the North American Review, Essence, and in the
Washington Square Press anthologies Where
Love is Found and Mother Knows: 24 Tales of
Motherhood. Her essays have been published
in Scoundrel Time, Lit Hub, Electric Lit, and in
the anthology From Curlers to Chainsaws:
Women and their Machines (Michigan State
University Press, 2016).

Karen has taught writing at the University of
Michigan, where she earned her MFA, and at St.
Mary’s College of Maryland.

List of Writers In Residence by Year

2024-2025 — Tope Folarin – essayist, novelist, reviewer
2023-2024 — Hayes Davis – poet
2022-2023 — Regie Cabico – poet
2021-2022 — Naomi Ayala – poet
2020-2021 — Steven Leyva – poet, anime enthusiast
2019-2020 — Teri Ellen Cross Davis – poet
2018-2019 — Alan King – poet
2017-2018 — Joelle Biele – poet
2016-2017 — Daniel Johnston – playwright
2015-2016 — Laura Shovan – poet
2014-2015 — Joseph Ross – poet
2013-2014 — Jenny O’Grady – poet, artist
2012-2013 — Derrick Weston Brown – poet
2011-2012 — Sandra Beasley – poet
2010-2011 — Marion Winik – essayist, novelist, professor
2009-2010 — Terence Patrick Winch – poet, musician
2008-2009 — Elizabeth (Liz) Reese – poet
2007-2008 — Truth Thomas – poet, musician
2006-2007 — Gayle Danley- slam poet
2005-2006 — Kendra Kopelke – poet, professor
2004-2005 — Dr. Michael S. Glaser – poet, editor, professor
2003-2004 — Jean Nordhaus – poet
2002-2003 — Grace Cavalieri – poet, editor, radio host
2001-2002 — Reuben Jackson – poet, curator
2000-2001 — Lybumir Nikolov- poet, journalist
1999-2000 — Edgar Gabriel Silex -poet
1998-1999 — Barbara Goldberg –poet, writer
1997-1998 — Michael Collier – poet, professor
1996-1997 — E. Ethelbert Miller – poet, editor, director
1993-1994 — Li Young Li – poet
1992-1993 — Michael Dirda – editor
Earlier — Lucille Clifton, Roland Flint

HoCoPoLitSo partners with the Howard County Public School System to provide a writer-in-residence visit at each of the twelve county public high schools and Homewood Center. School programs are underwritten by a generous donation from Dr. Lillian Bauder.

To learn more or schedule a visit contact HoCoPoLitSo’s High School Liaison Judy Young at Judy_Young@hcpss.org or contact HoCoPoLitSo at HoCoPoLitSo.74@gmail.com or call 443.518.4568.