MFA Fall Reading Series Presents Authors Paisley Rekdal, Don Lee, Student Readings
September 20, 2022
Contact: Office of Advancement and External Relations
Phone: 14108375739
The University of Baltimore's MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts Fall Reading Series returns with live events with noted authors Don Lee and Paisley Rekdal, plus an evening of readings from several MFA students, starting in October and continuing through December. The series, free and open to the public, will take place in various locations on the UBalt campus.
"The Reading Series brings fantastic events to the University and the local community," says Betsy Boyd, professor and director of the MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts. "The student reading night is such a fun way to cap the semester. All MFA writers are invited to participate, and the feeling is one of open-mic festivity."
The University's Fall 2022 Reading Series features the following events:
- Don Lee, author of The Partition
Oct. 11, 7 p.m.
Reading in the LAP Theater (LAP 308), 10 W. Preston St. - Paisley Rekdal, author of Appropriate: A Provocation
Nov. 3, 7 p.m.
Reading in the Hilda and Michael Bogomolny Room, 5th floor of the UBalt Student Center, 21 W. Mt. Royal Ave. - MFA Student Reading
Dec. 9, 7 p.m.
MFA students read from their latest works in the Hilda and Michael Bogomolny Room, 5th floor of the UBalt Student Center, 21 W. Mt. Royal Ave.
Don Lee has authored a number of short stories and novels, and served as a literary journal editor and creative writing professor. His fiction, including his debut story collection, Yellow, and his first novel, Country of Origin, has earned critical acclaim, such as the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for Yellow, an American Book Award, a Mixed Media Watch Image Award for Outstanding Fiction, and an Edgar Award for Best First Novel for Country of Origin. His second novel, Wrack and Ruin, was a finalist for the Thurber Prize, while his third, The Collective, won the 2013 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature from the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association. Lee's fourth novel, Lonesome Lies Before Us, came out in 2017. His latest collection of stories, The Partition, was released in May.
Paisley Rekdal is the author of the poetry collections A Crash of Rhinos, Six Girls Without Pants, The Invention of the Kaleidoscope, and Imaginary Vessels. She also wrote a collection of essays, The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee: Observations on Not Fitting In, and a memoir, Intimate. Serving from 2017 to this year as Poet Laureate of Utah, Rekdal has received several awards and honors, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, a Civitella Ranieri Residency, multiple Pushcart Prizes, the AWP Creative Nonfiction Prize, and more. Published in 2021, Appropriate: A Provocation explores cultural appropriation in its many forms. Rekdal's latest book, Real Toads: Imaginary Gardens: How to Read and Teach a Poem, is forthcoming. She teaches at the University of Utah.
Capping off the Fall 2022 Reading Series on Dec. 9, the evening of student readings is a highlight of the UBalt MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts program. Students will share from their original works of fiction, poetry and memoir, which they have been refining in various workshop settings in preparation for their final project.
Learn more about The University of Baltimore's MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts, part of the Klein Family School of Communications Design.
This event is made possible by the Klein Family Fund.