Enjoy hearing great writers in an intimate setting? This reading series from the Solstice MFA program is always terrific. Some of my fave writers, again, including Roland Merullo reading from his newest, American Savior. I was able to get my hands on an Advance Reading Copy and - how do I put into words the gesture where you put your fingers to your lips, kiss, and whip that smooch into the universe with a wave of the arm? I promise to post about the book itself - it's canny, timely, and very funny. I do hope the NY Times Book Review catches this one. Here's the press release from program director, Meg Kearney, who's also reading and, worth noting, a supremely good reader herself:
THE SOLSTICE MFA OF PINE MANOR COLLEGE ANNOUNCES ITS JULY READING SERIES
[Chestnut Hill, MA, July 1, 2008] The Solstice MFA in Creative Writing Program of Pine Manor College announces its July Reading Series. The following writers will read from their work at 7:30 p.m. (unless otherwise noted) in the Founder’s Room of Pine Manor College, located at 400 Heath Street in Chestnut Hill. All readings are free and open to the public; copies of the authors’ books will be available for sale and signing before and after the readings. Plenty of free parking!
Friday, July 11: Fiction & nonfiction writer Randall Kenan (The Fire This Time, Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Century, and Let the Dead Bury Their Dead), & novelist Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Shutter Island, and the forthcoming The Given Day).
Saturday, July 12: Graduating MFA student Kirsten Blocker, poet Kathleen Aguero (Daughter Of, The Real Weather, and Thirsty Day), & novelist Sterling Watson (Sweet Dream, Baby; The Calling; and Weep No More, My Brother).
Sunday, July 13: Graduating MFA student Adam Eisenson, Program Administrator and fiction writer Tanya Whiton (published in Crazyhorse and Northwest Review), plus novelist & young people’s writer Laban Carrick Hill (America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the 60s, A Brush With Napoleon, and Casa Azul).
Monday, July 14 at 4:30 p.m.: MFA student readings.
Tuesday, July 15: Graduating MFA student Maryann Jacob, MFA Program Director and poet Meg Kearney (An Unkindness of Ravens, The Secret of Me, and the forthcoming Home By Now), and poet, essayist, & short-story writer Ray Gonzalez (The Hawk Temple at Tierra Grande, The Underground Heart: A Return to a Hidden Landscape, and the forthcoming Faith Run: Lyrical Poems and Cool Auditor: Prose Poems).
Wednesday, July 16: Graduating MFA student John Theo, Jr., YA novelist Laura Williams McCaffrey (Alia Waking and Water Shaper), and special guest novelist & nonfiction writer Roland Merullo (In Revere, In Those Days; Golfing With God; A Little Love Story; and the forthcoming American Savior).
Thursday, July 17 at 4:30 p.m.: MFA student readings
Thursday, July 17: Poet & fiction writer Steven Huff (A Pig In Paris, The Water We Came From, and More Daring Escapes), fiction & nonfiction writer Joy Castro (The Truth Book), & novelist Helen Elaine Lee (Water Marked, The Serpent’s Gift, and the forthcoming Life Without).
Friday, July 18: poet Laure-Anne Bosselaar (A New Hunger, Small Gods of Grief, and The Hour Between Dog and Wolf), YA novelist An Na (The Fold, A Step From Heaven, and Wait for Me), and essayist & memoirist Michael Steinberg (editor of Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction; author of Still Pitching).
Directions to Pine Manor College, complete bios of our authors, and more information about the Solstice MFA Program can be found at www.pmc.edu/mfa.
