UT MFA Program Presents Lectores Speaker Series Jan. 5–12

The University of Tampa MFA in Creative Writing speaker series, Lectores, will feature seven nights of readings with a mix of award-winning visiting authors and UT’s world-renowned MFA faculty from Jan. 5–12.

The series kicks off on Thursday, Jan. 5, with a reading by Colson Whitehead, the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of The Underground Railroad (an Oprah’s Book Club Selection). Whitehead is a National Book Award winner and recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship.

The series continues on Friday, Jan. 6, with David Finkel, author of Thank You For Your Service and The Good Soldiers, and editor and writer for The Washington Post. Among Finkel’s honors are a Pulitzer Prize in 2006 and a MacArthur Fellowship in 2012.

The series also features readings by Poet Laureate of Florida Peter Meinke as well as Sarah Domet, Gina Frangello, Steven Thomas Howell, Stefan Kiesbye, Kevin Moffett, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Jason Ockert and Phillip Williams.

All readings and events are free and open to the public. All begin at 7:30 p.m. in Falk Theatre, 428 W. Kennedy Blvd. The full series follows:

Thursday, Jan. 5: Reading with No. 1 New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award winner Colson Whitehead. For more information on this speaker, please visit www.prhspeakers.com.
Friday, Jan. 6: Reading with journalist and author David Finkel.
Saturday, Jan. 7: Readings with Sarah Domet, whose debut novel, The Guineveres, was released in October 2016, and Phillip Williams, author of the book of poems Thief in the Interior.
Monday, Jan. 9: Reading with Poet Laureate of Florida Peter Meinke.
Tuesday, Jan. 10: Readings with Jason Ockert, award-winning author of the novel Wasp Box and two collections of short stories, Neighbors of Nothing and Rabbit Punches, and German novelist and poet Stefan Kiesbye, whose latest novel, Knives, Forks, Scissors, Flames, was released in October 2016.
Wednesday, Jan. 11: Readings with Gina Frangello, author of Every Kind of Wanting and A Life in Men, which was selected for the Target Emerging Authors series, and Kevin Moffett, award-winning author of Permanent Visitors and Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events.
Thursday, Jan. 12: Readings with award-winning poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of three poetry collections, Lucky Fish, At the Drive-in Volcano and Miracle Fruit, and MFA alumnus Steven Thomas Howell.

The UT MFA in Creative Writing program works by bringing students for 10-day residencies in January and June and then facilitating individual mentorship between students and writing faculty from a distance. Throughout each residency, Lectores speakers give a 45–50 minute evening reading, followed by a book-signing. The next morning, the author gives a 60–70 minute seminar, on a topic of their choice, for the program’s student body.

For more information, go to www.ut.edu/mfacw/lectores or call Lynne Bartis at (813) 257-3514.