Jess Walter at Writers in the Library, Oct. 7

Posted on October 1, 2013

Jess Walter will read at UT’s Writers in the Library, Monday, October 7th at 7 p.m. in the John C. Hodges Library auditorium. The reading is free and open to the public.

A former National Book Award finalist and winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award, Jess Walter is the author of six novels and one nonfiction book. His work has been translated into more than 20 languages, and his essays, short fiction, criticism and journalism have been widely published in Best American Short Stories, Best American Nonrequired Reading, Harper’s, Esquire, McSweeney’s, Byliner, Playboy, ESPN the Magazine, Details and many others. His most recent novel, the New York Times-bestseller Beautiful Ruins, has been hailed by critics and loved by readers of literary and historical fiction. Beautiful Ruins is the story of an almost-love affair that begins on the Italian coast in 1962 and is rekindled in Hollywood fifty years later.

Walter’s other publications include The Financial Lives of Poets, The Zero, Citizen Vince, Land of the Blind, Over Tumbled Graves, and Every Knee Shall Bow (rereleased as Ruby Ridge). The Financial Lives of Poets was Time Magazine’s #2 novel of the year for 2009; The Zero was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Award and winner of the LA Times Book Prize; and Citizen Vince was winner of the Edgar Allen Poe Award for best novel.

Jess Walter lives with his wife Anne and children in his childhood home of Spokane, Washington.

Students are invited to an informal chat with the author on Monday, October 7, 3:00–4:00 p.m., in 1210 McClung Tower.

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Writers in the Library is sponsored by the University of Tennessee Libraries and the UT Creative Writing Program in association with the John C. Hodges Better English Fund. For further information contact Marilyn Kallet, Director, UT Creative Writing Program (mkallet@utk.edu), or Christopher Hebert, Writer-in-Residence, UT Libraries (chebert3@utk.edu).

Poet Edward Hirsch at Writers in the Library, Sept. 30

Posted on September 18, 2013

Poet Edward Hirsch will read at UT’s Writers in the Library, Monday, September 30, at 7 p.m. in the John C. Hodges Library Auditorium (1015 Volunteer Blvd., Knoxville, TN). The event is free and open to the public.

Hirsch, a MacArthur Fellow, has published eight books of poems, including The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems (2010), which brings together thirty-five years of work. He has also written four prose books, among them How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry (1999), a national bestseller, and Poet’s Choice (2006), which is based on his columns for the Washington Post Book World. He edits the series “The Writer’s World” (Trinity University Press). He has edited Transforming Vision: Writers on Arts (1994), Theodore Roethke’s Selected Poems (2005) and To a Nightingale (2007), and co-edited A William Maxwell Portrait: Memories and Appreciations (2004) and The Making of a Sonnet: A Norton Anthology (2008).

Hirsch holds a B.A. from Grinnell College (1972) and a Ph.D. from The University of Pennsylvania (1979). He has received numerous awards and fellowships, including the National Book Critics Circle Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Ingram Merrill Foundation Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, a Pablo Neruda Presidential Medal of Honor, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature. He is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and holds seven honorary degrees. He taught in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston for seventeen years and now serves as president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

• On Monday, September 30, Hirsch will offer a presentation for UT researchers on what makes a successful Guggenheim application, beginning at 3:30 p.m. in Room 405 Tickle Engineering Building.

• Students are invited to an informal chat with the author on Tuesday, October 1, 11:00 to noon, in 1210 McClung Tower.

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Edward Hirsch’s visit is funded by the Department of English, the Creative Writing Program, and the UT Office of Research. Writers in the Library is sponsored by the University of Tennessee Libraries and the UT Creative Writing Program in association with the John C. Hodges Better English Fund. For further information contact Marilyn Kallet, Director, UT Creative Writing Program (mkallet@utk.edu), or Christopher Hebert, Writer-in-Residence, UT Libraries (chebert3@utk.edu).

Poets Jeff Hardin and Kali Meister at Writers in the Library, Sept. 23

Posted on September 13, 2013

Poets Jeff Hardin and Kali Meister will read from their works at UT’s Writers in the Library, Monday, September 23, at 7 p.m. in the John C. Hodges Library Auditorium (1015 Volunteer Blvd., Knoxville, TN). The event is free and open to the public.

Jeff Hardin is the author of two books of poetry: Notes for a Praise Book (Jacar Press, 2012) and Fall Sanctuary (Story Line Press, 2004), and a recipient of the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize. His chapbooks are Deep in the Shallows (GreenTower Press, 2002) and The Slow Hill Out (Pudding House, 2003). His poems have been featured in Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and The Writer’s Almanac. He is a professor of English at Columbia State Community College in Columbia, Tennessee.

Kali Meister is an award-winning poet, actor, and filmmaker who served as the Jack E. Reese Writer in Residence of the UT Libraries, 2008–2009. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Goddard College. Her full-length play, After Autumn, was a finalist in the 2010 Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights at the Barter Theatre. She is co-founder of She Wonder Production; its films have been selections of the Knoxville 24-Hour Film Festival, the Secret City Film Festival, and the Knoxville Horror Film Fest. Meister teaches theater at Pellissippi State Community College and reading and writing at Roane State Community College.

The poets will hold an informal chat with interested students, 3-4 p.m., Monday, September 23, in 1210 McClung Tower.

Nicholas Delbanco to Read at UT Libraries

Posted on August 23, 2013

DELBANCO WILL READ AND PAY TRIBUTE TO WRITER AND FORMER UT PROFESSOR JON MANCHIP WHITE

Distinguished author Nicholas Delbanco will read at the University of Tennessee’s Writers in the Library on Monday, September 16, 7:00 p.m. in the John C. Hodges Library auditorium.

Delbanco is the author of more than twenty books across several genres. His novels include What Remains, Spring and Fall, and his celebrated Sherbrookes trilogy. He has also written two short story collections and numerous works of nonfiction, including, most recently, The Art of Youth: Crane, Carrington, Gershwin, and the Nature of First Acts, which profiles prodigies who produce their major work at an early age. Delbanco is currently at work assembling a collection of literary correspondence between himself and Jon Manchip White, former Lindsay Young Professor of English at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. White, the author of over 30 books and many plays, poems and film scripts, died earlier this year, at age 89. White and Delbanco’s epistolary collection covers more than three decades and chronicles the men’s friendship and literary careers. In addition to presenting his own work, Delbanco will pay tribute to White by reading from a selection of the correspondence.

Nicholas Delbanco is Robert Frost Distinguished University Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan. He has served as Chair of the fiction panel for the National Book Awards, received a Guggenheim Fellowship and, twice, a National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship.

Delbanco will hold an informal chat with interested students, 3:00–4:00 p.m, Monday, September 16, in 1210 McClung Tower.

Student Winners of Graduate Writing Awards to Read, April 22

Posted on April 16, 2013

The University of Tennessee’s final Writers in the Library event of the academic year will feature readings by student winners of the John C. Hodges Graduate Writing Awards. Readings from the winning works will take place in the Hodges Library auditorium on Monday, April 22, at 7:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Awards are made possible by the English Department through the John C. Hodges Better English Fund, endowed by the long-time UT English professor and author of the Harbrace College Handbook, for whom the Hodges Library also is named.

2013 winners of the John C. Hodges Graduate Writing Awards:

FICTION 
First Prize: Ryan Woldruff, for “Still, This Might Be a Love Story”
Second Prize: Daniel Wallace, for “My Arctic Circle”
Third Prize: Tawnysha Greene, for “All God’s Children”

POETRY 
First Prize: Stephanie Duggers, for a series of poems
Second Prize: Christian Anton Gerard, for a series of poems (“Defense of Poetry”)
Third Prize: Tawnysha Greene, for a series of poems

Winners of the John C. Hodges Graduate Writing Awards will receive $500 for First Prize, $300 for Second Prize, and $100 for Third Prize in each category. This year’s judges were English faculty Laura Hoffer and Chuck Maland in fiction, and author (and former Writer-in-Residence at the UT Libraries) Brian Griffin in poetry.

The public is invited to join the university community for readings by these accomplished, up-and-coming writers.
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Writers in the Library is sponsored by the University of Tennessee Libraries and the UT Creative Writing Program in association with the John C. Hodges Better English Fund. For further information contact Marilyn Kallet, Director, UT Creative Writing Program (mkallet@utk.edu), or Christopher Hebert, Writer-in-Residence, UT Libraries (chebert3@utk.edu).

Writers in the Library

Posted on April 12, 2013

The Libraries and the Creative Writing Program will sponsor two more Writers in the Library readings this semester. Mark your calendars.

On Monday, April 15, Writers in the Library will host poets Marilyn Kallet and Keith Norris, 7:00 p.m. in the Hodges Library auditorium. Kallet is director of UT’s Creative Writing Program, and Norris, a graduate of the Creative Writing Program, is on the English faculty at Pellissippi State Community College. Kallet will read from her recently published book, The Love That Moves Me. Norris will read from “Backwoods Inferno,” his hilarious backwoods version of Dante’s journey through Hell. The public is invited and is guaranteed to be entertained.

Writers in the Library on Monday, April 22, will feature readings by student winners of UT’s Graduate Writing Prizes. Each year, students in the Creative Writing Program compete for the John C. Hodges Graduate Writing Prizes in fiction and poetry. The Graduate Writing Prizes are made possible by the English department through the John C. Hodges Better English Fund, endowed by the long-time UT English professor and author of the Harbrace College Handbook, for whom the Hodges Library also is named. The public is invited to hear the talented Creative Writing Program candidates.
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Writers in the Library Event Brings Together Renowned Poets

Posted on April 5, 2013

***Update: Sadly, Arthur Smith will have to miss this event due to family concerns.***

Two UT faculty members will read at UT’s Writers in the Library and launch their new books on April 15th at 7 p.m. in Hodges Library Auditorium. Dr. Marilyn Kallet, director of UT’s Creative Writing Program, and Arthur Smith, professor of English, are established poets and major American authors.

The reading is historic in that both Smith and Kallet have new books out at the same time and will be doing a reading together. In their most recent works, they incorporate a variety of poems about love, life and loss through their crisp, clean writing styles and expressive personalities.

Kallet and Smith will read from their recently published books: The Love That Moves Me and The Fortunate Era, respectively.

“This is a rare and special treat,” Chris Hebert, the Jack E. Reese Writer in Residence at the UT Libraries said. “Any new book is a memorable occasion, but to have two new books simultaneously — one from each of the beloved poets on our faculty — is a cause for celebration!”

Kallet and Smith have won prestigious awards for their poetry. Smith has received two Pushcart Prizes and a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, while Kallet has received the Tennessee Arts Commission Literary Fellowship in Poetry, written 16 books and performed internationally.
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Adam Prince at Writers in the Library, April 8

Posted on March 15, 2013

Adam Prince will read at UT’s Writers in the Library, Monday, April 8th at 7 p.m. in the John C. Hodges Library auditorium. The reading is free and open to the public.

Adam Prince’s first book, a short story collection called The Beautiful Wishes of Ugly Men, is about how men attempt to negotiate between their baroque imaginations and the realities of their actual lives. This book is a dark, comic, nuanced, and sexed-up collection of stories that might be offensive if it didn’t feel so true. It has been called “dangerous as a knife fight” by UT’s own Michael Knight and “both entertaining and insightful” by Publisher’s Weekly.

His award-winning fiction has appeared in The Missouri Review, The Southern Review, and Narrative Magazine, among others. In 2011, Narrative Magazine named him one of the best twenty new writers. His story “A. Roolette? A. Roolette?” won First Place in Narrative‘s Winter 2010 Story Contest. In addition, Prince was awarded the Wabash Prize for Fiction for work Peter Ho Davies called “notable for its acute observations, wry wit, and delicate characterization.”

Prince is currently at work on a novel that takes place in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Born and raised in Southern California, Adam Prince has since lived in New York, South Korea, Arkansas, Nicaragua, and Knoxville, Tennessee. Prince received a PhD in English and Creative Writing at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and he’s currently the 2012-2013 Tickner Fellow at the Gilman School. He is married to the poet Charlotte Pence.

The author will also hold a Q&A session for all interested students, 3-4 p.m., Monday, April 8, in 1210 McClung Tower.
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T Cooper at Writers in the Library, March 11

Posted on February 25, 2013

T Cooper will read at UT’s Writers in the Library, Monday, March 11th at 7 p.m. in the John C. Hodges Library auditorium. The reading is free and open to the public.

T Cooper is the author of three novels, including The Beaufort Diaries and Lipshitz Six, or Two Angry Blondes. His most recent book is Real Man Adventures, a chronicle of the writer’s transsexual journey presented through a collage of letters, essays, interviews, artwork, and conversations exploring what it means to be a man. T Cooper maintains a sense of humor as he takes us through his transition into identifying as male — even publishing the letter he wrote to his parents to inform them that he “wasn’t their daughter anymore.” It’s a brash, wildly inventive, and comic exploration of the paradoxes and pleasures of masculinity.

Cooper is also the editor of an anthology of original stories entitled A Fictional History of the United States (with Huge Chunks Missing). T’s work has appeared in a variety of publications and anthologies, including the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Believer, One Story, Electric Literature, and others.

T has adapted and produced a short film based on his graphic novel The Beaufort Diaries. The animated short, directed by the book’s illustrator Alex Petrowsky and starring actor David Duchovny, was an official selection at several film festivals, including Tribeca Film Festival, South By Southwest, the New Orleans Film Fest, the Worldwide Short Film Festival, and the Anchorage International Film Festival.

T Cooper was born and raised in Los Angeles, attended Middlebury College in Vermont, and taught high school in New Orleans before settling in New York City in 1996. He earned an MFA from Columbia University. T enjoys vintage airplanes, M*A*S*H, the great outdoors, world peace, and anything to do with pit bull advocacy. He lives with his family in New York and in the South.

The author will also hold a Q&A session for all interested students, 2-3 p.m., Monday, March 11, in 1210 McClung Tower.

T Cooper’s reading is co-sponsored by UT’s Lambda Student Union.

Read a review of Real Man Adventures at Chapter 16: a community of Tennessee writers, readers and passersby (brought to you by Humanities Tennessee).
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Valerie Laken at Writers in the Library, Feb. 25

Posted on February 13, 2013

Valerie Laken will read at UT’s Writers in the Library, Monday, February 25th at 7 p.m. in the John C. Hodges Library auditorium. The reading is free and open to the public.

Valerie Laken is the author of the short story collection Separate Kingdoms (Harper, 2011), and the novel Dream House (Harper, 2009). She holds degrees in English and Russian from the University of Iowa and in Creative Writing and Slavic Literature from the University of Michigan. Originally from Rockford, Illinois, Valerie Laken has traveled throughout the world. She has worked and studied in Moscow, Prague, Krakow, Madison, and now teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the Creative Writing program.

Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Writer, and The Chicago Tribune. Her honors include a Pushcart Prize, an Anne Powers Prize, two Hopwood Awards, a Missouri Review Editors’ Prize, and an honorable mention in The Best American Short Stories.

Her short story collection Separate Kingdoms has been met with wide acclaim. The Chicago Tribune praises its “fine craftsmanship and powerful insight” and Library Journal calls it “vivid and evocative.” Likewise, her novel Dream House has been widely praised. The Kirkus Review says Laken “handles the fraught subjects of class, race, and family bonds with equal candor and sensitivity” and author Charles Baxter calls Dream House “sexy, sharp-eyed, and deeply haunted all at once.”

The author will also hold a Q&A session for all interested students, 3-4 p.m., Monday, February 25, in 1210 McClung Tower.

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