On Monday, November 1 at 7:30 p.m., MFA Professor and author Phil Klay will engage in a conversation with writer Kaitlyn Greenidge titled “The Weight of History and the Search for Freedom.” The virtual event is free and open to the public, but advance registration is required.

Hailed by The New York Times as “a feat of monumental thematic imagination” and by Publisher’s Weekly as a “genius work of radical historical fiction,” Whiting-prize winner Greenidge’s newest novel Libertie explores the questions of personal freedom, trauma, motherhood, and Black liberation through the story of Libertie Sampson, a Black girl in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn whose doctor mother expects Libertie to follow in her trailblazing path.

"Kaitlyn Greenidge is one of the best new writers working today," said Klay. "Her fiction is deeply historically informed and politically sophisticated, but ultimately driven by careful attention to character. I think it’s often challenging for writers who want to tackle subjects of political and historical importance to integrate that into vibrant and unruly fictional narratives, but Greenidge does it brilliantly." 

The format for the evening will be a Q&A, and Klay will ask Greenidge to read a few passages from her work. 

Greenidge's writing has also appeared in Vogue, Glamour, the Wall Street Journal, Elle, Buzzfeed, Transition Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Believer, American Short Fiction and other places. She is the recipient of fellowships from the aforementioned Whiting Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University, and the Guggenheim Foundation. She is currently features director at Harper’s Bazaar as well as a contributing writer for The New York Times.

As a companion speaker series to the College of Arts and Sciences' MFA program, Inspired Writers Series events are designed to not only provide encouragement and inspiration for writers, but also to inform, entertain, and enlighten any participant with lively discussions from top authors. All events are free and open to the public.

A veteran himself, series host Phil Klay is at the helm of the Fairfield MFA veterans’ community, leading workshops and supporting veteran writers. He served in Iraq’s Anbar Province as a public affairs officer before receiving his MFA from Hunter College of The City University of New York. Released this past October by Penguin Press, Missionaries is Klay's debut novel. His short story collection Redeployment won the 2014 National Book Award, and Missionaries was chosen by former President Barack Obama as one of his favorite books of 2020, and was also named one of “The 10 Best Books of 2020” by The Wall Street Journal.

For information about the Inspired Writers Series, please visit quickcenter.com.