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Reading Series

Our Reading Series presents free literary readings and discussions that are open to the public. The series is co-sponsored by USF’s MFA program and English department. All readings are held on USF's main campus.

Fall 2020 MFA Reading Series

Saeed Jones

Saeed Jones

Saeed Jones is the author of the memoir How We Fight for Our Lives, winner of the 2019 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction, the 2020 Stonewall Book Award/Israel Fishman Nonfiction Award, a 2020 Publishing Triangle Award, and a 2020 Lambda Literary Award. He is also the author of the poetry collection Prelude to Bruise, winner of the 2015 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry, the 2015 Stonewall Book Award/Barbara Gittings Literature Award, and finalist for the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award. He lives in Columbus, Ohio with his dog Caesar.

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Jan Beatty

Jan Beatty

Jan Beatty is the author of Red Sugar, Boneshaker, and Mad River, winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize, and The Body Wars. She is the winner of the Red Hen Nonfiction Award for her memoir, American Bastard (forthcoming, 2021). Jackknife: New and Selected Poems, won the 2018 Paterson Prize. For many years, Beatty worked as a waitress, an abortion counselor, and in maximum security prisons. She directs creative writing at Carlow University where she runs the Madwomen in the Attic writing workshops and is Distinguished Writer in Residence of the MFA program.

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Reading Series Archive

The Emerging Writers Festival

Co-sponsored by the English department and MFA program, the Emerging Writers Festival features two days of readings by five up-and-coming writers of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. On the second day of the festival, the authors hold a panel discussion on their experiences navigating life as a writer and the complexities of the publishing industry.