Spalding University’s Festival of Contemporary Writing Is May 14-21
Spalding University’s Festival of Contemporary Writing, the state’s largest fall-spring reading series, will be held May 14-21, featuring free readings by faculty, guests, and alumni of Spalding University’s brief-residency Master of Fine Arts in Writing program. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the program.
Festival of Contemporary Writing events will be held at Spalding’s Egan Leadership Center lectorium, located at the corner of Fourth and Breckinridge streets, and at the Brown Hotel (335 W. Broadway) as noted. Plenty of free parking is available for the campus readings. Authors may or may not read from the work listed below.
7:30-8:45 p.m. Saturday, May 14 (ELC Lectorium)
- Luke Wallin (creative nonfiction, fiction), Conservation Writing: Essays at the Crossroads of Nature and Culture
- Kira Obolensky (playwriting, fiction), Raskol
- Joyce McDonald (writing for children & young adults), Devil on My Heels
- Robin Lippincott (fiction), In the Meantime
- Debra Kang Dean (poetry), author of Precipitates
- Sheila Callaghan (screenwriting, playwriting), staff writer for The United States of Tara
2:30-3:30 p.m. Sunday, May 15 (ELC Lectorium)
- Dianne Aprile (nonfiction), The Eye Is Not Enough: On Seeing and Remembering
- Helena Kriel (screenwriting), Skin
- Silas House (fiction), Eli the Good
- Kathleen Driskell (poetry), Seed Across Snow
- Sena Jeter Naslund (fiction), Adam & Eve
7:30-8:45 p.m. Sunday, May 15 (ELC Lectorium)
- Julie Brickman (fiction), What Birds Can Only Whisper
- Eric Schmiedl (playwriting), Browns Rules
- Jeanie Thompson (poetry), The Seasons Bear Us
- Philip F. Deaver (fiction), How Men Pray
- Louella Bryant (fiction; nonfiction), Full Bloom; While in Darkness There Is Light
- John Pipkin (fiction), Woodsburner
7:30-8:45 p.m. Monday, May 16 (ELC Lectorium)
- Richard Goodman (nonfiction), A New York Memoir
- Neela Vaswani (fiction; nonfiction), Where the Long Grass Bends; You Have Given Me a Country
- Kirby Gann (fiction), Our Napoleon in Rags
- Lesléa Newman (writing for children & young adults), Just Like Mama
- Brad Riddell (screenwriting), The Plebe
- Eleanor Morse (fiction), An Unexpected Forest
6:00-7:00 p.m. Tuesday, May 17 (ELC Lectorium)
- K. L. Cook (fiction), The Girl from Charnelle
- Nancy McCabe (nonfiction), After the Flashlight Man: A Memoir of Awakening
- Sam Zalutsky (screenwriting), You Belong to Me
- Rachel Harper (fiction), Brass Ankle Blues
- Charlie Schulman (playwriting, screenwriting), The Fartiste
6:15-7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 19. Celebration of Recently Published Books. (Secretariat Room, 1st Floor, Brown Hotel, 335 W. Broadway)
- Molly Peacock, The Paper Garden: An Artist Begins Her Life’s Work at 72
- Daly Walker, author of Surgeon Stories, Fleur-de-Lis Press’ latest book
- Maureen Morehead, author of The Melancholy Teacher
- Roy Hoffman, author of Alabama Afternoons: Profiles and Conversations
Book signing to follow. Books provided by Carmichael’s.
4:15-5:30 p.m. Friday, May 20 Celebration of Recently Published Books by Alumni. (Citation A & B, 1st floor, Brown Hotel)
- Kelly Creagh (young adult), Nevermore
- Sonja de Vries (poetry), Planting a Garden in Baghdad
- Stacia Fleegal (poetry), Versus
- J. J. Gumbs (fiction), The Jamerican
- Cyn Kitchen (fiction), Ten Tongues
- Loreen Niewenhuis (creative nonfiction), A Thousand‑Mile Walk on the Beach: One Woman’s Trek of the Perimeter of Lake Michigan
- Barbara Sabol (poetry), Original Ruse
- Vickie Weaver (fiction), Billie Girl
- Charles Dodd White (fiction), Lambs of Men
Book signing to follow. Books provided by Follett Bookstore (Spalding University).
2:15-3:15 p.m. Saturday, May 21 MFA alumni read from works-in-progress (ELC Lectorium)
- Adriena Dame, fiction
- Bridgett Jensen, creative nonfiction
- George Schricker, writing for children and young adults
- AshleyRose Sullivan, fiction
- David Harrity, poetry
- Jenn Sherlock, writing for children and young adults
- Nathan Gower, fiction
The reading schedule may change without notice. Check the website for updated information: www.spalding.edu/mfa. For more information, call 502-585-9911, ext. 2423 or 800-896-8941, ext. 2423 or email mfa@spalding.edu.
Spalding’s four-semester, brief-residency MFA in Writing combines superb instruction with unparalleled flexibility. The Program offers concentrations in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, writing for children and young adults, screenwriting, and playwriting. Students begin the semester in the spring, summer, or fall with a 10-day residency in Louisville or abroad, then return home for an independent study with a faculty mentor for the rest of the semester. Students may customize the location, season, and pace of their studies. See www.spalding.edu/mfa for more information.
