CAMDEN – Summer reading got you ready for more? Get your literary fill this fall when the nation’s top authors and poets visit Rutgers–Camden for a free reading series that features community writing workshops. Thanks to funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rutgers–Camden master of fine arts (MFA) program will host this powerhouse series, showcasing Pulitzer Prize nominees, New York Times bestsellers, and local talent.
The readings will take place at 7 p.m. in the Stedman Gallery, located in the Fine Arts Building, or in the Campus Center’s Multi-Purpose Room. Both buildings are located on Third Street, between Cooper Street and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge on the Rutgers–Camden Campus. A Q&A session and reception will follow each reading. For inquiries on the workshops, email mfa@camden.rutgers.edu. Space for the workshops is limited.For directions to Rutgers–Camden, visit camden.rutgers.edu. Learn more about the Rutgers–Camden MFA program at mfa.camden.rutgers.edu.Wednesday, Sept. 12Rutgers–Camden novelists Paul Lisicky and Lisa Zeidner will read in the Multi-Purpose Room.Paul Lisicky is the author of the memoir Famous Builder, and two novels, Lawnboy and The Burning House. His newest book, Unbuilt Projects, is a collection of essays that has recently been selected for The Rumpus Poetry Book Club. His work has appeared in Ploughshares, The Iowa Review, StoryQuarterly, and many other anthologies and magazines. He is currently the New Voices Professor at Rutgers-Camden.
Lisa Zeidner is the author of two books of poetry and five novels, including Layover. Her new novel Love Bomb upturns the whodunnit genre and introduces a post-modern bride: one who is not only uninvited, but is holding the wedding hostage. Her reviews, articles, and stories have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, GQ, Slate, and other publications. She is a professor of English at Rutgers-Camden, where she teaches in the MFA creative writing program.
Wednesday, Sept. 19Poet Terrance Hayes will read in the Multi-Purpose Room. Terrance Hayes won a National Book Award for his collection of poetry, Lighthead. His other collections of poetry are Wind in a Box, Hip Logic, and Muscular Music. He is the recipient of numerous other awards, including a Whiting Writers Award, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, a National Poetry Series award, a Pushcart Prize, two Best American Poetry selections, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He is a professor of creative writing at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Wednesday, Oct. 24Novelists Ellis Avery and Gary Krist will read in the Stedman Gallery.
Ellis Avery was named by the New York Press as “The Best Writer You’ve Never Heard of but Should Go Read Right Now.” Her latest novel is The Last Nude. She is also the author of the award-winning novel The Teahouse Fire and the memoir The Smoke Week. She teaches fiction writing at Columbia University. Gary Krist has published three novels, two short story collections, and two books of narrative nonfiction. His most recent work of nonfiction, City of Scoundrels, was a New York Times bestseller. He has been a regular book reviewer for The New York Times Book Review, Salon, and The Washington Post Book World, and his satirical op-eds have appeared in The New York Times and Newsday. Wednesday, Nov. 14Novelist Karen Russell will read in the Multi-Purpose Room.Karen Russell’s debut novel, Swamplandia!, was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In 2011, she won the Bard Fiction Prize for St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, a collection of short fiction. Her stories have been featured in The New Yorker, The Best American Short Stories, Granta, Zoetrope, and other publications. A new collection of short fiction, Vampires in the Lemon Grove, is forthcoming in February, 2013. She is writer-in-residence at Bard College.Wednesday, Dec. 5Poets Aracelis Girmay and Ross Gay will read in the Stedman Gallery.Aracelis Girmay is the author of two collections of poetry, Teeth and Kingdom Animalia, for which she was presented the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award. She has also published a collage-based picture book, Changing, Changing: Story and Collages. Her poems have been published in Ploughshares, Bellevue Literary Review, Indiana Review, and Callaloo. She has taught youth writing workshops in schools and community centers for the past decade. She is an assistant professor of poetry at Hampshire College and also teaches in the low-residency MFA program at Drew University.
Ross Gay is the author of two poetry collections, Bringing the Shovel Down and Against Which. His poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Atlanta Review, Harvard Review, and Columbia: A Journal of Poetry and Art. He is a Cave Canem Fellow, a basketball coach, and a painter. He teaches poetry at Indiana University in Bloomington and at the low-residency MFA program at Drew University.
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