Fairfield University's MFA in Creative Writing Program presents public readings at Enders Island in Mystic | Press Releases

Public readings from Wally Lamb, Eugenia Kim, Lary Bloom, Paul Lisicky, Rachel Basch, Al Davies, Da Chen, Karen Osborn and others

Fairfield University's low residency MFA in Creative Writing, with concentrations in fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and screen writing, presents a summer and winter series of public readings by noted authors at Enders Island, where graduate students spend four exciting and rigorous 10-day residency periods during the two-year program.

The readings this summer take place from July 16 through July 25 and begin at 7 p.m. in the Chapel of Our Lady of the Assumption. Bank Square Books in Mystic is partnering with Fairfield to make the authors' books available, with book signings following the readings. Admission is free and seating, which is limited, will be on a first-come, first serve basis.

Access is by way of Mason's Island Road with signs showing the way to Enders Island.

Friday, July 16

Eugenia Kim's debut novel, The Calligrapher's Daughter (Holt), won the 2009 Borders Original Voices award, is a Washington Post Critic's Pick and Best Book for 2009, and a Publishers Weekly First Fiction Pick.

Leila Philip , author of three books, including the award-winning memoir, A Family Place: A Hudson Valley Farm, Three Centuries, Five Wars, One Family (Viking 2001, Penguin 2002) which was recently republished by SUNY press as an Excelsior Edition (2009) with an updated epilogue, photographic essay, and additional historical materials.

Rachel Basch is the author of two novels: The Passion of Reverend Nash (W.W. Norton), named one of the five best novels of 2003 by The Christian Science Monitor , and Degrees of Love (W.W. Norton, Harper Paperbacks) which was translated into Dutch and German and was a selection of the Hartford Courant's Book Club.

Saturday, July 17

Josip Novakovich , a native of Croatia, has published a novel, April Fool's Day , three story collections ( Infidelities: Stories of War and Lust, Yolk , and Salvation and Other Disasters ) and two collections of narrative essays. His work was anthologized in Best American Poetry, the Pushcart Prize collection, and O. Henry Prize Stories.

Kim Bridgford's books include Undone , Instead of Maps , and In the Extreme: Sonnets about World Records , winner of the Donald Justice Prize. She is working on a three-book poetry/photography project with visual artist Jo Yarrington, focusing on journey and sacred space in Iceland, Venezuela, and Bhutan and was the 2007-08 Connecticut Touring Poet.

Paul Lisicky is the author of Lawnboy and Famous Builder , both published by Graywolf Press. His work has appeared in many anthologies and magazines and he has a novel, The Burning House, from Etruscan Press due out in Spring 2011.

Sunday, July 18

Hollis Seamon is the author of a short story collection, Body Work (Spring Harbor Press 2000), and a mystery novel, Flesh (Avocet Press 2005). Her short stories have appeared in many literary journals and she won the 2009 Al Blanchard award for short fiction.

Wally Lamb , a guest faculty member for the summer with the MFA program, is the author of three New York Times bestselling novels - The Hour I First Believed , I Know This Much is True , and She's Come Undone - of which two were Oprah's Book Club selections. Lamb edited Couldn't Keep It to Myself and I'll Fly Away , two volumes of essays from students in his writing workshop at York Correctional Institution, a women's prison in Connecticut, where he has been a volunteer facilitator for the past 10 years. His latest novel, Wishin' and Hopin': A Christmas Story, was published in November of 2009.

Tuesday, July 20

Al Davies , who has published two prize-winning collections of stories ( Rumors from the Lost World and Alone with the Owl ), received two Fulbright awards (to Indonesia and Slovenia) and a Loft-McKnight Award of Distinction in Creative Prose. He recently completed a third collection of stories and a novel.

Michael White , director of the MFA program at Fairfield University, is the author of six novels: Beautiful Assassin , just published in March by William Morrow/Harper Collins Soul Catcher, A Brother's Blood, The Blind Side of the Heart, A Dream of Wolves , and The Garden of Martyrs . He is also the author of the story collection, Marked Men, and has published 50 stories in national and literary magazines. He was the founding editor of the American Fiction series and is the fiction editor of Dogwood .

Thursday, July 22

Elizabeth Kirschner has published five books of poetry, most recently, Surrender to Light, Cherry Grove Editions, 2009; and My Life as a Doll, brought out by Autumn House in 2008 and nominated for the Lenore Marshall Prize. She has collaborated with many classical composers who have set her poetry to music for both national and international venues and has three CDs out of her work.

Baron Wormser is the author of seven books of poetry and a poetry chapbook. He is the co-author of two books about teaching poetry and the author of a memoir and a collection of short stories. He directs the Frost Place Conference on Poetry and Teaching in Franconia, N.H. and served as poet laureate of Maine from 2000 to 2005.

Da Chen , a Columbia University School of Law graduate who worked for the Wall Street investment banking firm of Rothschilds, Inc., is the author of a memoir, Colors of the Mountain , which was compared to Angela's Ashes and became the object of an intense bidding war among five top New York publishing houses. A New York Times bestseller, it was published in six other languages. His first adult fiction, Brothers , was awarded the Washington Post Best Book of 2006. His next fiction, due out this year, will be published by Crown.

Friday, July 23

Karen Osborn is the author of Patchwork" (HBJ), a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Between Earth and Sky (William Morrow), and The River Road (William Morrow/ Harper Collins). Her poetry has been published in numerous literary journals, anthologies, and magazines.

Sarah Manguso is the author of the memoir, The Two Kinds of Decay , a story collection, Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape , and the poetry collections Siste Viator and The Captain Lands in Paradise . Her writing has appeared in McSweeney's, the New York Times Magazine , the Paris Review, and three volumes of the Best American Poetry series.

Porochista Khakpour's debut novel, Sons and Other Flammable Objects (Grove/Atlantic), a New York Times "Editor's Choice," Chicago Tribune "Fall's Best," and 2007 California Book Award winner, is out in paperback. Born in Tehran and raised in Los Angeles, her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Daily Beast, The Village Voice, The Chicago Reader and FiveChapters.com, among others.

Saturday, July 24

Pete Duval's short story collection, Rear View (Houghton Mifflin), won the Connecticut Book Award and was a finalist for a Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His work has appeared in a variety of journals including Alaska Quarterly Review, Northwest Review, Exquisite Corpse , and The Sonora Review . He recently completed a historical novel, Election Day , set along the coast of Buzzard's Bay where he grew up.

Joan Connor is a recipient of several awards, including the Barbara Deming Award and a Pushcart Prize, for her short story collection, "History Lessons," and the Riverteeth Award for her collection of essays, "The World Before Mirrors." Her two earlier story collections are: "We Who Live Apart" and "Here On Old Route 7."

Sunday, July 25

Nalini Jones' story collection, What You Call Winter , was published in August 2007 by Knopf. She is a Stanford Calderwood Fellow of the MacDowell Colony, and has recently taught at Columbia University and the 92nd Street Y in New York. For several years she worked in music, helping produce festivals and concert series in New York, Newport, and New Orleans.

Lary Bloom is the author and co-author of several nonfiction books, including The Writer Within , Lary Bloom's Connecticut Notebook , and the memoirs, Letters From Nuremberg (with Senator Christopher J. Dodd) and The Test of Our Times (with former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge). As one of America's leading Sunday magazine editors for 30 years, he nurtured writers such as Edna Buchanan, Carl Hiaasen, Dave Barry, Madeleine Blais, David Hays and Susan M. Dodd. He writes a monthly column for the New York Times and Connecticut magazine.

Bill Patrick's works have been published or produced in several genres: creative nonfiction, poetry, fiction, screenwriting, and drama. Saving Troy (2005) is a creative nonfiction chronicle of a year spent living with the professional firefighters and paramedics of the Troy, N.Y., Fire Department's 1st Platoon, and accompanying them to emergency medical calls, rescues, and fires. His radio play, Rescue, was aired world-wide on BBC 3 in 1997. His book, We Didn't Come Here for This (1999) , is a hybrid of creative nonfiction and poetry.

For more information, visit www.fairfield.edu/mfa or contact Elizabeth Hastings at ehastings@mail.fairfield.edu.