Juan Herrera, Alison Bechdel, Adam Johnson among Winter Words authors

Winter Words 2016 will open with sitting U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera in January and will include a graphic novelist, her on-stage doppelganger, two Pulitzer Prize-winning novelists, two MacArthur “genius grant” recipients and one Pulitzer-winning journalist.

Passes for the series, presented by Aspen Words, will go on sale Friday.

Herrera is the first Latino to hold the post of U.S. poet laureate, whose more than two dozen books include poetry collections “Notes on the Assemblage,” “Senegal Taxi” and “Half of the World in Light,” the novel-in-verse “Crashbomblove” and children’s books such as “SkateFate” and “Calling the Doves.” He will read and speak at Winter Words on Jan. 12.

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Graphic novelist Alison Bechdel is best known for her comic strip “Dykes to Watch,” for coming up with what’s now known as the Bechdel Test, evaluating representation of women in fiction. A 2014 MacArthur fellow, her graphic memoir “Fun Home” was adapted into a Tony Award-winning musical, which stars Snowmass Village’s Beth Malone as Alison. Malone and Bechdel will speak at Winter Words on Jan. 27.

Novelist Adam Johnson won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in fiction for “The Orphan Master’s Son” and is the author, most recently, of the story collection “Fortune Smiles.” Johnson will speak at Winter Words on Feb. 13.

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Husband-and-wife duo Geraldine Brooks and Tony Horwitz return to Winter Words on March 15. They were last featured in the series in 2012. Brooks, author of the recently released novel “The Secret Chord,” won the Pulitzer in 2006 for “March” and has penned the bestsellers “Caleb’s Crossing” and “Year of Wonders.” Horwitz, a journalist who won the Pulitzer in 1995 for reporting in the Wall Street Journal on working conditions in low-wage America, has written acclaimed nonfiction books including “Confederates in the Attic,” “Blue Latitudes” and “Baghdad Without a Map.”

The literary series closes April 5 with “The House on Mango Street” author Sandra Cisneros, whose works include two highly acclaimed novels, a short story collection, two poetry collections and an adult picture book. Cisneros is the founder of the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral and Macondo Foundations, which serve creative writers, and is a 1995 MacArthur grant recipient.

Winter Words tickets may be purchased at the Wheeler Opera House box office and http://www.aspen showtix.com. Single tickets are $20; series passes are $60 for Aspen Words members and $80 for non-members. More information at http://www.aspen words.org.