Writers in The Art Gallery

All readings take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Center of Fine and Performing Arts, Building 82, unless otherwise noted. A reception will precede each event at 7 p.m. The events are free and open to the public. All readings are sponsored by the UWF Department of English and Foreign Languages. For more information, contact Professor Jonathan Fink at jfink@uwf.edu.

2011 - 2012

November 16, 2011 - Q&A with Andy Paris, Tectonic Theater Project - 2011-2012 UWF Common Read Author

Andy Paris's Common Read Program Q&A for UWF faculty, staff and students will take place from 1:00-2:15pm on Wednesday, November 16 in the CFPA Mainstage Theater, Building 81.

Visit the UWF Common Read site for more information

As a founding member of Tectonic Theatre Project, Andy has appeared in three productions directed by Moises Kaufman (Machinal, Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde and The Laramie Project) as well as several workshops and readings. He is proud to have been a part of the development of the company and marvels at its continued success. Other credits include: Innocents (dir. Rachel Dickstein), Mankynde: The Musical (dir. Louis Scheeder), Proof (Playmaker’s Rep), Wit (dir. Josephine Abady), Twelfth Night (dir. John Rando), The Quiet Room (dir. Lucie Tiberghien), Red Noises (dir. Melissa Kievman), Phaedre (dir. Matthew Maguire), Indelible Flesh (dir. Randy Rollison), Quick, Bright Things (by Jesse McKinley), Cymbeline (dir. Mr. Scheeder), The Merchant of Venice, Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom, ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, and Love’s Labours Lost. Andy has lent his voice to several books for Recorded Books Productions and starred in Smile, a Radio Play. He is a graduate of NYU. (Photo credit: Jojo Whilden)

March 8, 2012 - Maile Chapman, Fiction Writer

Maile Chapman's reading will take place from 7:30-8:30pm (reception at 7:00) on Thursday, March 8 in the CFPA Music Hall, Building 81.

Maile Chapman is the author of the novel Your Presence Is Requested at Suvanto (Graywolf, 2010). She has been a recent fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center For Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, researching Alzheimer’s disease, the challenges of caring for aging parents, and the ways in which fear of illness can outweigh seemingly self-evident scientific fact. She is also the Las Vegas facilitator for Literature and Medicine, a humanities discussion group for hospital staff, organized by the Nevada Humanities Council and supported by the Maine Humanities Council. Her stories have appeared in journals such as A Public Space, Boston Review, Dublin Review, and Denver Quarterly. She teaches in the MFA program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

April 5, 2012 - Laurie O' Brien Creative Writing Awards Reading

The Laurie O'Brien Awards Reading will take place from 8:00-9:00pm (reception at 7:30) on Thursday, April 5 in the CFPA Music Hall, Building 81.

The Department of English and Foreign Languages is pleased to sponsor the Laurie O’Brien Creative Writing Awards for undergraduate and graduate students currently enrolled at the University of West Florida. Each of the six award winners receives an original commisioned work of art from a professional artist and a featured reading by the author at the Awards Night Writers in the Gallery. Awards for the best poetry, fiction and nonfiction by a currently enrolled University of West Florida student will be given on both the graduate and undergraduate level.

April 11, 2012 - Tobias Wolff, UWF 2011-2012 Writer in Residence

Tobias Wolff's reading will take place in the CFPA Music Hall, Building 81.

Tobias Wolff is the author of the novels The Barracks Thief and Old School, the memoirs This Boy's Life and In Pharaoh's Army, and the short story collections In the Garden of the North American Martyrs, Back in the World, and The Night in Question. His most recent collection of short stories, Our Story Begins, won The Story Prize for 2008. Other honors include the PEN/Malamud Award and the Rea Award - both for excellence in the short story - the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the PEN/Faulkner Award. He has also been the editor of Best American Short Stories, The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories, and A Doctor's Visit: The Short Stories of Anton Chekhov. His work appears regularly in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper's, and other magazines and literary journals.