Public invited to WCSU M.F.A. program series of readings

DANBURY, CONN. —The public is invited to attend evening readings during the week beginning Sunday, Aug. 3, 2014, as part of the Western Connecticut State University Master of Fine Arts in Creative and Professional Writing program. Readers include published authors who also serve as mentors in the programs, and recent M.F.A. graduates who will read from their theses.

All readings, except for Tuesday, Aug. 5, will be held on the university’s Westside campus, 43 Lake Ave. Extension, Danbury, in Room 218 of the Classroom Building. The Aug. 5 reading will be at Alumni Hall on the Midtown campus, 181 White St. in Danbury. Admission will be free to all public readings.

The schedule of public readings is as follows:

• Sunday, Aug. 3, at 7 p.m.: Author Joe Ahearn and WCSU M.F.A. graduate Alexis Fedorjaczenko. Ahearn is the author of “Five Fictions” and “synthetic.” His poetry, fiction, translations, criticism and essays have been widely published. He was a fellow at the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas. WS 218.

• Monday, Aug. 4, at 7 p.m.: Author Elizabeth Cohen and WCSU M.F.A. graduates David Griffith and Dana Jenkins. Cohen, an assistant professor of creative writing at SUNY Plattsburgh, is author of “The Family on Beartown Road,” which was lauded by The New York Times as “frank, funny…courageous.” Last fall her book of short stories, “The Hypothetical Girl,” was chosen as a “book of the week” by Oprah Magazine. WS 218.

• Tuesday, Aug. 5, at 7 p.m.: Author Tim Weed and WCSU M.F.A. graduate Jenn Powers. Weed is winner of a Writer’s Digest Popular Fiction Award and his collected stories have been shortlisted for the New Rivers Press Many Voices Project, the Autumn House Fiction Prize and the Lewis-Clark Press Discovery Award. His first novel, “Will Poole’s Island,” will be published in August. Alumni Hall.

• Wednesday, Aug. 6, at 7 p.m.: WCSU M.F.A. graduates Erik Ofgang and Jeannette Ronson. WS 218.

Launched in 2005, the program enables participants from across the nation to continue working while pursuing M.F.A. studies in a diverse range of creative and nonfiction writing genres through distance learning.

For more information, visit www.wcsu.edu/writing/mfa or call (203) 837-8878.

Western Connecticut State University offers outstanding faculty in a range of quality academic programs. Our diverse university community provides students an enriching and supportive environment that takes advantage of the unique cultural offerings of Western Connecticut and New York. Our vision: To be an affordable public university with the characteristics of New England’s best small private universities.