CAMDEN – A dozen nationally known authors will offer free public readings on the Rutgers–Camden Campus as part of the 23rd annual Rutgers–Camden Summer Writers’ Conference Tuesday, July 7, through Tuesday, July 14.
Students attending the writers’ conference will read their works on Wednesday, July 15.
Except for the 1 p.m. Friday, July 10 reading in the Black Box Theater, the series will take place at 7 p.m. in the Stedman Gallery, also located in the Fine Arts Complex on Third Street, between Cooper Street and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge on the Rutgers–Camden Campus.
On Tuesday, July 7, poet J.T. Barbarese, an associate professor of English at Rutgers–Camden, whose latest book of poems, The Black Beach, won the Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry, will read with Nahid Rachlid, author of the memoir Persian Girls and four novels, including Jumping Over Fire.
On Wednesday, July 8, Kathryn Harrison, author of the novels Envy, The Seal Wife, and Thicker Than Water and the memoir The Kiss, among others, will read with poet Tom Sleigh, whose most recent book of poetry, Space Walk, won the Kingsley Tufts Award.
On Thursday, July 9, hip-hop novelist Adam Mansbach, author of Angry Black White Boy and the 2009 New Voices Professor at Rutgers–Camden, will read with award-winning novelist Diane McKinney-Whetstone, who recently published Trading Dreams at Midnight.
On Friday, July 10, Conference Director Lisa Zeidner, a professor of English at Rutgers–Camden and the author of four novels and two books of poems, will read with author Lise Funderburg, who wrote the nonfiction book Black, White, Other: Biracial Americans Talk About Race and Identity. This 1 p.m. reading in the Black Box Theater, also located in the Fine Arts Complex on the Rutgers–Camden Campus, will include a discussion about the creative process.
On Monday, July 13, poet W.S. DiPiero, the author of nine books of poems, including most recently, Chinese Apples: New and Selected
On Tuesday, July 14, Jill Bialosky, the author of three books of poems, including Subterranean, and two novels, including The Life Room, will read with poet Elaine Terranova, whose poetry collection, The Cult of the Right Hand, won the Walt Whitman Award.
On Wednesday, July 15, select conference participants will read their own original works.
The inaugural class in the Rutgers–Camden MFA program in creative writing began last fall. Accepting only 15 students per year, the competitive Rutgers–Camden MFA program requires 42 credits of coursework and completion of a thesis for this terminal degree concentrating in fiction, poetry, and narrative nonfiction.
More information about Rutgers–Camden’s MFA program in creative writing is available at mfa.camden.rutgers.edu.
The Camden Campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, offers 34 undergraduate and 16 master’s-level and PhD programs. Located in the heart of the vibrant Camden Waterfront, Rutgers-Camden is home to 250 faculty whose research, teaching, and service endeavors are represented worldwide.
For more information about the Rutgers–Camden Summer Writers’ Conference free reading series, call (856) 225-6490 or visit http://summer.camden.rutgers.edu/writconf.html.
For directions to Rutgers–Camden, visit http://camden.rutgers.edu.
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Media Contact: Cathy K. Donovan
(856) 225-6627
E-mail: catkarm@camden.rutgers.edu