UNT Announces Visiting Writers Series Fall 2013 Season

Friday, September 20, 2013 - 14:39

DENTON (UNT), Texas Author Matt Bell will start the University of North Texas’ Fall UNT Visiting Writers Series with a reading and book signing Oct. 1 (Tuesday). The series, which is sponsored by Creative Writing in the Department of English, will also include poet Alan Michael Parker and author Poe Ballantine. The authors will offer question-and-answer sessions for students prior to their readings.

The readings and book signings for Bell and Parker will take place in Room 180 of UNT’s Business Leadership Building, 1307 West Highland Street. The reading and book signing for Poe Ballantine will be held in Room 116 of Sage Hall, 1167 Union Circle.

All of the readings are free and open to the public.

Matt Bell

Oct. 1 (Tuesday)

4 p.m., Q & A

8 p.m., Reading & Book Signing (Room 180, Business Leadership Building)

Matt Bell is the author of “Cataclysm Baby,” a novella, and “How They Were Found,” a collection of fiction. His debut novel “In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods” was well accepted. NPR’s Michael Schaub raved that “In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods”  “isn't just a joy to read, it's also one of the smartest meditations on the subjects of love, family and marriage in recent years.” Besides being a highly praised author, Bell also is the senior editor at Dzanc Books, editor of The Collagist literary magazine and a professor of creative writing at Northern Michigan University.

Alan Michael Parker

Oct. 31 (Thursday)

4 p.m., Q & A

8 p.m., Reading & Book Signing (Room 180, Business Leadership Building)

Alan Michael Parker has written three novels — “Cry Uncle,” “Whale Man” and “The Committee on Town Happiness,” along with seven collections of poems: “Days Like Prose,” “The Vandals,” “Love Song with Motor Vehicles,” “A Peal of Sonnets,” “Elephants & Butterflies,” “Ten Days” (with painter Herb Jackson), and “Long Division,” a finalist for the 2013 UNT Rilke Prize. His poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, The Gettysburg Review, Kenyon Review, The New Republic, The New Yorker, Paris Review, Pleiades, and The Yale Review, among other magazines. In 2011 his poems were anthologized in The Best American Poetry. Alan Michael Parker’s poems have been awarded three Pushcart Prizes.

Poe Ballantine

Nov. 13 (Wednesday)

4 p.m., Q & A

8 p.m., Reading & Book Signing (Room 116, Sage Hall)

Poe Ballantine has published two essay collections: “Things I Like About America” and “501 Minutes to Christ,” two novels: “God Clobbers Us All and Decline of the Lawrence Welk Empire” and a memoir: “Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere,” which will be published this month. Ballantine has won two Best American Essays. The most recent winning essay, “Free Rent at the Totalitarian Hotel,” will be published in October. He was featured in the Best American Short Stories series for his 1998 story “Blue Devils of Blue River Avenue.” His works have been featured in The Atlantic Monthly, The Sun, Kenyon Review and the Coal City Review. Booklist describes Ballantine’s style as “a merry and absurd sweetness.”

For more information about these events contact Lisa Vining in the UNT Creative Writing Program at lisa.vining@unt.edu or 940-369-5981.

 

 

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