2013-2014 Reading Series

The calendar is not yet finalized for 2013-2014.  Check back for additions and changes.

Thursday, June 6, 2013
PHILIPP MEYER
7:00 pm Bookpeople, corner of N. Lamar & W. 6th Street, Austin

2008 MCW Alum Philipp Meyer, author of an award-winning debut  American Rust, will read from and sign his much-anticipated second novel, The Son, an inter-generational tale of Texas, a novel “so raw and dazzling and brutal and real, [it] should come with its own soundtrack,”  says Téa Obreht.

Thursday, September 19, 2013
COLM TOIBIN
7:30 pm Avaya Auditorium, ACES 2.302 on campus

Irish author Toibin, twice shortlisted for the distinguished Booker Prize for The Master and Blackwater Lightship, is also the author of Brooklyn (2009 Costa Novel of the Year); The Empty Family, a collection of stories; and most recently The Testament of Mary. He is Michener Residency Author for September 2013.

Thursday, December 5, 2013
NAOMI SHIHAB NYE, CARRIE FOUNTAIN & MICHAEL MCGRIFF
7:30 pm Avaya Auditorium, ACES 2.302 on campus

Fall 2013 visiting professors read in a poetry triple header.  Nye is the author of over 25 prize-winning books of poetry and prose; she returns to teach MCW’s first-year seminar.  MCW Alum Carrie Fountain is the National Poetry Series winner for her debut Burn Lake and a faculty member of the creative writing program at Austin’s St Edward’s University; she will teach a graduate seminar on poetry for the UT Department of English.  McGriff, also an MCW alum, is the author of two volumes of poems, Dismantling the Hills and Home Burial. His work has been recognized with fellowships from Stanford University, the Ruth Lilly Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, and others.  He teaches the graduate poetry workshop for MCW in fall.

Thursday, February 13
D.A. POWELL
7:30 pm Avaya Auditorium, ACES 2.302 on campus

Poet D.A. Powell’s books include the AIDS trilogy Tea, Lunch, and Cocktails; Chronic; and The Useless Landscape, or a Guide to Boys. His honors and awards include the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, the Lyric Poetry Award from the Poetry Society of America, and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2013, as well as support from the Guggenheim Foundation, the NEA, and others.  He is Michener Residency Author in Jan/Feb 2014.

Thursday, March 27
ZADIE SMITH
7:30 pm Avaya Auditorium, ACES 2.302 on campus

Novelist Zadie Smith, born in London to an English father and Jamaican mother, is the author of White Teeth, a stunning debut which won the Guardian and Whitbread First Book awards, among others; Autograph Man;  On Beauty, winner of the 2006 Orange Prize; and NW, named one of the New York Times Best Books of 2012.  She teaches at New York University.

Thursday, April 10
DENIS JOHNSON
7:30 pm Avaya Auditorium, ACES 2.302 on campus

Denis Johnson’s award-winning fiction includes the novels Tree of Smoke, winner of the 2007 National Book Award; Train Dreams, shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize; Angels, Fiskadora, The Stars at Noon, Already Dead, and The Name of the World. Other work includes the now-canonical story collection Jesus’ Son; plays (Hellhound on My Trail, Shoppers, Soul of  Whore and Purvis); and nonfiction (Seek:  Reports from the Edges of America and Beyond).  He teaches a fiction workshop for the MCW in spring 2014.

Friday, May 2
Spring 2014 Graduating MFA Class
7:00 pm (opening reception, with 7:30 reading), Avaya Auditorium, ACES 2.302 on campus

The graduating MFA class of fiction writers, poets, playwrights and screenwriters will read from their work: Flynn Berry, Karim Dicechkie, Taylor Flory Ogletree, Alen Hamza, Reina Hardy, Laurel Hunt, Abe Koogler, Corey Miller, Iheoma Nwachukwu, Ben Philippe, and Courtney Thomas Vance.