Master of Fine Arts

Readings for 2008 - 2009

 

READINGS FOR FALL 2008

Thursday, Nov. 13, 12:30-1:45, SSB 331. Poetry Reading by Kevin Higgins and Susan Miller DuMars. Two young poets from Galway, who started out in poetry slams, whose work is widely celebrated in Ireland. This event is sponsored and funded by the Smurfit-Stone Professorship.

Friday, Nov 14th, A reading by novelist Steve Stern. Room 450 Lucas Hall, UMSL, One University Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63121. At 7 PM. This event is free and open to the public. Contact: 314-516-5590. Hailed as the successor to Isaac Bashevis Singer, Steve Stern studied writing in the graduate program at the University of Arkansas. After time spent in England, he worked in Memphis at a local folklore center where he learned about the city's old Jewish ghetto and Yiddish folklore. He published his first collection of stories, Isaac and the Undertaker's Daughter, in 1983. It won the Pushcart Writers' Choice Award. Stern has won the O. Henry award, two Pushcart Prize awards, published more collections, includingLazar Malkin Enters Heaven (which won the Edward Lewis Wallant Award for Jewish American Fiction) and the novel Harry Kaplan's Adventures Underground. His 2000 collection The Wedding Jester won the National Jewish Book Award, and his novel The Angel of Forgetfulness was named one of the best books of 2005 by The Washington Post. His latest work, the novella The North of God (Melville House), was published in May, 2008. Stern teaches at Skidmore College.

 hETHAN CANIN

Thursday, Dec 4th, A reading by novelist Ethan Canin. Gallery 210, UMSL, 44 E. Drive, One University Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63121. At 7 PM. This event is free and open to the public. Contact: 314-516-5590.
Ethan Canin’s most recent novel is the New York Times best-selling epic, America America. His other five books include two collections of stories, Emperor of the Air and The Palace Thief, and three other novels, including Carry Me Across the Water and For Kings and Planets. His widely anthologized short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, The Paris Review, and many other magazines, and have also been the basis for several Hollywood movies. A graduate of Harvard Medical School and a licensed physician, he gave up medicine to become a professor at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, in Iowa City, Iowa. He and his wife and children now split their time between Iowa City and the woods of northern Michigan.

December 13th, Saturday, A Reading by graduating MFA fiction writers and poets, in the E. Desmond and Mary Ann Lee Theater of the Touhill Performing Arts Center,UMSL, One University Blvd., St. Louis, MO, 63121, 7:30-10:00 PM. The readers will be Juliette Yancy, Serena Muhammad, Jeannine Vesser, Inda Schaenen, and O. Ayes. There will be a party with food and cash bar. The event is free and open to the public. Contact 314-516-5590 or visit www.touhill.org.

READINGS FOR Winter/Spring 2009

Thursday, March 5th, A reading by poet Kevin Prufer. Gallery 210, UMSL, 44 E. Drive, One University Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63121. At 7 PM. This event is free and open to the public. Contact: 314-516-5590.
KEVIN PRUFER's newest books are NATIONAL ANTHEM (Four Way Books, 2008) and FALLEN FROM A CHARIOT (Carnegie Mellon, 2005).  He is also co-editor of NEW EUROPEAN POETS (Graywolf, 2008), DARK HORSES: ESSAYS ON OVERLOOKED POEMS (University of Illinois, 2007), and PLEIADES: A JOURNAL OF NEW WRITING.  He is the recipient of three Pushcart prizes, several awards from the Poetry Society of America, and a 2007 National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in poetry writing.  His next book, LITTLE PAPER SACRIFICE, is forthcoming.

Thursday, March 5, 2009, 1230-145, SSB 331. Poetry Reading by Christine Casson and John Meneghan. Our annual celebration of Irish American poetry. This event is sponsored and funded by the Smurfit-Stone Professorship.

May 15th, Friday, A Reading by graduating MFA fiction writers and poets, in the E. Desmond and Mary Ann Lee Theater of the Touhill Performing Arts Center, UMSL, One University Blvd., St. Louis, MO, 63121, 7:30-10:00 PM. The readers will be Chris Candice, Bridget Healey, Angela Mitchell-Phillips, Mike Fetters, Andrew Pryor, and Capuchina Taylor. There will be a party with food and cash bar. The event is free and open to the public. Contact 314-516-5590 or visit www.touhill.org.