Each semester, through the UCA Artists in Residence Program and the College of Fine Arts and Communication, the Department of Writing invites acclaimed writers to visit UCA, hold master classes with writing students, and give a free public reading/talk for the campus and community.

2010/2011 SERIES

October 12

Renowned essayist, David Gessner, who is celebrated for 6 books and numerous articles in top-tier magazines, writes creative nonfiction about environmental politics.  His book Soaring with Fidel (Beacon Press 2007) chronicles not only the migration of  the osprey but also the bird-watchers, scientists, and filmmakers who follow them from Cape Cod to Cuba and back.  Gessner is associate professor of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and editor-in-chief of the country's top eco-journal Ecotone.

2009/2010 SERIES

October 20-21

Peter Carey is one of two writers in history to have won the Booker Prize twice.  His 1985 novel Illywhacker was short listed for the prize. His next, Oscar and Lucinda, (1988) won.  And then, in 2001 True History of the Kelly Gang won once more. In 1998 he was awarded the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Jack Maggs, and again in 2001 for True History Of The Kelly Gang.  In 2007 he received the NSW Premiers Award and the Victorian Premiers Award for Theft:  A Love Story.  His novels have been honored by every major Australian literary award, including the Miles Franklin (3 times) and the National Book Council Award (3 times).  His most recent novel is His Illegal Self, published in 2008.

Born in Bacchus Marsh, Australia, Peter Carey now lives in New York where he is the Executive Director of the MFA Creative Writing program at Hunter College. 

 http://petercareybooks.com

November 10-11

Ibtisam Barakat, Born in Beit Hanina, near Jerusalem, Ibtisam Barakat had her life turned upside down at age three, when Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem following the 1967 war.  "I will never know what my life would have been like without having grown up under Israeli occupation," says writer, poet and educator Barakat.  "This influenced me in every way. And it made me sensitive to all the issues of injustice that exist in the world."

Growing up with war and occupation is the focus of Barakat's memoir, Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood, released in 2007 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. In 2007, Booklist named it one of the top ten biographies for youth and it was listed as an American Library Association Notable, and in 2008 it won the International Reading Association's Best Non-Fiction Book Award for Children and Young Adults.

After earning her bachelor's degree from Birzeit University in the West Bank, Barakat moved to New York in 1986, where she interned with The Nation. Later, she earned Masters in Journalism and Human Development and Family Studies, both from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

"I find it especially important to encourage people from under-privileged groups to find their voices and speak up," Barakat explains.  "Given the harsh climate of humanity at this time, it is the responsibility and privilege of all of us to contribute our stories toward the composition of a book of life and history that represents all." 

Barakat is working on her second book. 

http://www.ibtisambarakat.com

February 25 & 26

Richard Miller, Professor of English and former Chair at Rutgers, will speak about the future of the humanities in a talk entitled "Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century."

Miller believes that creativity should be at the center of the humanities. He spearheaded the construction of Writer's House at Rutgers, a building designed for writers to develop collaborative, media-rich, mixed-genre projects. View a YouTube video about Writer's House at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKZ_JgLlh9g&feature=related.

Non-fiction prose writing is Miller's special focus; he experiments with mixed-genre writing in his own scholarship, and he believes that non-fiction writing is driving public conversations and policymaking. An example of one of his experiments in mixed-genre academic writing is his latest book, _Writing at the End of the World_; a review and description of this book is published in _Enculturation_ and viewable online at http://enculturation.gmu.edu/6.1/friedman. A YouTube presentation Miller developed around issues from this book is available as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQJAgb7mbPs&feature=related.

In his work to move composition students from black and white thinking and writing into an engagement with the messiness, complexity, and reality of the problems we face in society, Miller developed _The New Humanities Reader_, a description of which can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv4lLzn_4Zk&feature=related. In addition, he puts together interdisciplinary groups of students to tackle specific issues in their writing from multiple perspectives. View a discussion of these groups on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbZURDUwpdw&feature=related.

This special presentation is sponsored by a Foundation Grant.

Public Lecture
Thursday, February 25, 2010, 7:30 p.m.
Baum Gallery, room 143 (East McCastlain)

March 9 & 10

Elise Blackwell is the author of three critically hailed novels:  Hunger, The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish, and Grub.  Her books have been chosen for numerous best of the year lists, including the Los Angeles Times, Sydney Morning Herald, and Kirkus. Her short stories and cultural criticism have appeared in Witness, Topic, Seed, Global City Review, Quick Fiction, and elsewhere, and she has given readings at dozens of literary festivals, universities, and bookstores.  Her fourth novel, An Unfinished Score, will be published by Unbridled Books in spring 2010. 

Elise is from southern Louisiana, though she has lived in many other places.  She studied creative writing at Louisiana State and received an MFA from the University of California-Irvine.  Before publishing her first novel in 2003, she worked as a bartender, entomology lab grunt, journalist, disc jockey, food critic, grower of exotic fruits, translator, and flap copy writer, among other day jobs.  She has taught creative writing at the University of California-Irvine and Boise State, and is currently on the faculty of the University of South Carolina.  She lives in Columbia, South Carolina, with her husband, the writer David Bajo, and their daughter, Esme.  Her interests include literature, travel, art, music, and running. 

http://eliseblackwell.com

Public Reading & Book Signing
Tuesday, March 9, 2010, 7:30 p.m.
Lewis Science Center 102

Craft Lecture/Question & Answer
Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 12:00 p.m.
Thompson Hall 331

March 30 & 31

Davis Schneiderman is a multimedia artist and author of Multifesto:  A Henri d'Mescan Reader (Spuyten Duyvil 2006), as well as co-author of the novel Abecedarium (Chiasmus Press, forthcoming) and co-editor of the collections Retaking the Universe:  William S. Burroughs in the Age of Globalization (Pluto 2004) and The Exquisite Corpse:  Creativity, Collaboration, and the World's Most Popular Parlor Game (Nebraska, forthcoming).  His creative work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and accepted by numerous publications including Fiction International, The Chicago Tribune, The Iowa Review Web, Exquisite Corpse, 3rd Bed, Other Voices, The Little Magazine, Gargoyle, and Happy.  Dr. Schneiderman is Chair of American Studies and an Assistant Professor of English at Lake Forest College, a board member for &NOW: A Festival of Innovative Writing and Art, and a contributor to NOW WHAT:  a collective blog of alternative prose writers and publishers. 

http://davisschneiderman.com

Public Reading, Book Signing & Q&A
Tuesday, March 30, 2010, 7:30 p.m.
Lewis Science Center 102

Craft Lecture
Wednesday, March 31, 2010, 1:00 & 2:00 p.m.
Thompson Hall 331

April 1

Charlaine Harris, who has been writing mysteries for over twenty years, is a native of Mississippi. Born and raised in the Delta, she began training for her career as soon as she could hold a pencil. Though her early works consisted largely of poems about ghosts and, later, teenage angst, she began writing plays when she attended Rhodes College in Memphis, and graduated to writing books a few years later.

After publishing two stand-alone mysteries, Harris decided to establish a series. She began the lighthearted Aurora Teagarden books with Real Murders, which garnered an Agatha Award nomination. Harris’s protagonist, a diminutive Georgia librarian whose life never turns out quite the way she planned, kept Harris busy for several books, but finally Harris (and Aurora) grew restless.

The result of this restlessness was the much edgier Shakespeare series—set not in England, but in rural Arkansas. The heroine of the Shakespeare books is Lily Bard, a tough and taciturn woman whose life has been permanently reshaped by a terrible crime and its consequences. In Shakespeare’s Landlord, the first in the series, Lily is caught at a moment when the shell she’s built around herself is just beginning to crack, and the books capture Lily’s emotional re-entry into the world, while also being sound mysteries.

Harris’s latest venture is a series about a telepathic barmaid in southern Louisiana.  The first book in the series, Dead Until Dark, won an Anthony Award for best paperback mystery of 2001.  Each book about Sookie Stackhouse (and her dealings with vampires, werewolves, and other creatures of the night) has gathered more readers to enjoy the books’ unique blend of mystery, humor, romance, and the supernatural.  The Sookie books are also being read in Japan, Spain, Greece, and Great Britain.

In addition to her work as a writer, Harris is married and a mother to three children. A former weightlifter and karate student, she is also an avid reader and cinephile.  She is a member of the vestry of St. James Episcopal Church.

Harris is a member of the Mystery Writers of America and the American Crime Writers League. She is on the board of Sisters in Crime, and alternates with Joan Hess as president of the Arkansas Mystery Writers Alliance.

New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire series (on which the HBO hit series True Blood is based ), will hold a lecture and book signing in Reynolds Performance Hall at UCA, located in Conway, Arkansas, at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 1, 2010.

Admission is free, but there is a limit of two tickets per person.  Tickets may also be reserved by phone (501-450-3265).  All seats are reserved – no general admission.

Public Reading & Book Signing
Thursday, April 1, 2010, 7:30 p.m.
Reynolds Performance Hall

*Biography information reprinted by permission from Penguin Speakers Bureau and can be found at http://www.penguinspeakersbureau.com/speaker/334.