Upcoming Events
- Location:
- Zoom: students will be emailed a link before the workshop
- Cost:
- Free
- Contact:
- Name: Bianca Alyssa Pérez
Email: mfinearts@txstate.edu - Campus Sponsor:
- TXST MFA in Creative Writing
aomi Shihab Nye is the author and/or editor of more than 30 volumes. Her books of poetry include 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, A Maze Me: Poems for Girls, Red Suitcase, Words Under the Words, Fuel, and You & Yours (a best-selling poetry book of 2006). She is also the author of Mint Snowball, Never in a Hurry, I’ll Ask You Three Times, Are you Okay? Tales of Driving and Being Driven (essays); Habibi and Going Going (novels for young readers); Baby Radar, Sitti's Secrets, and Famous (picture books) and There Is No Long Distance Now (a collection of very short stories).
Other works include several prize-winning poetry anthologies for young readers, including Time You Let Me In, This Same Sky, The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems & Paintings from the Middle East, What Have You Lost?, and Transfer. Her collection of poems for young adults entitled Honeybee won the 2008 Arab American Book Award in the Children’s/Young Adult category. Her novel for children, The Turtle of Oman, was chosen both a Best Book of 2014 by The Horn Book and a 2015 Notable Children's Book by the American Library Association. The Turtle of Oman was also awarded the 2015 Middle East Book Award for Youth Literature. She was named Young People's Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation in 2019, awarded the 2019 Lon Tinkle Award by the Texas Institute of Letters, and elected into The American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2021. Her most recent books are Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners (2018; Greenwillow Books, HarperCollins) and The Tiny Journalist (2019; BOA Editions).
Description of workshop:
A workshop led by Naomi Shihab Nye where MFA students are asked to bring poems to the session (they can be based on her prompt or not). Students will then critique and provide helpful suggestions to each other as Naomi leads and gives her insight. TXST MFA poetry and fiction students are welcome to send their poems in for consideration.
Other works include several prize-winning poetry anthologies for young readers, including Time You Let Me In, This Same Sky, The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems & Paintings from the Middle East, What Have You Lost?, and Transfer. Her collection of poems for young adults entitled Honeybee won the 2008 Arab American Book Award in the Children’s/Young Adult category. Her novel for children, The Turtle of Oman, was chosen both a Best Book of 2014 by The Horn Book and a 2015 Notable Children's Book by the American Library Association. The Turtle of Oman was also awarded the 2015 Middle East Book Award for Youth Literature. She was named Young People's Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation in 2019, awarded the 2019 Lon Tinkle Award by the Texas Institute of Letters, and elected into The American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2021. Her most recent books are Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners (2018; Greenwillow Books, HarperCollins) and The Tiny Journalist (2019; BOA Editions).
Description of workshop:
A workshop led by Naomi Shihab Nye where MFA students are asked to bring poems to the session (they can be based on her prompt or not). Students will then critique and provide helpful suggestions to each other as Naomi leads and gives her insight. TXST MFA poetry and fiction students are welcome to send their poems in for consideration.
- Location:
- Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center, 508 Center Street, Kyle, Texas 78640
- Cost:
- Free
- Contact:
- Bianca Alyssa Perez; mfinearts@txstate.edu
- Campus Sponsor:
- Department of English
Amanda Churchill is a writer living in Texas. She is a Writers’ League of Texas 2021 Fellow. Her debut novel, The Turtle House, was inspired by her beloved grandmother, a Japanese war bride. Her work has been featured in Hobart Pulp, Witness, River Styx, and other publications.
- Cost:
- Free
- Contact:
- Name: Bianca Alyssa Pérez
Email: mfinearts@txstate.edu - Campus Sponsor:
- Main TXST calendar
Tim O’Brien is the author of nine books, including the universally acclaimed books, The Things They Carried, and Going After Cacciato, winner of the 1978 National Book Award. His other novels include If I Die in a Combat Zone: Box Me Up and Ship Me Home; Northern Lights; The Nuclear Age; Tomcat in Love; July, July; and In the Lake of the Woods. His most recent book is the memoir Dad's Maybe Book. He was a major contributor to Ken Burns’ renowned PBS documentary on the Vietnam War (2017), where his writing was featured. In 2012, O'Brien received both the Texas Writer Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation's Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award.
Description of workshop:
A workshop led by Tim O’Brien will have students read and discuss a maximum of 2 unconventional short stories per workshop. Thirty to forty-five minutes of every workshop will also be dedicated to conceptual free writing, outside any project the students are currently working on. TXST MFA poetry and fiction students are welcome to send their short story in for consideration.
Description of workshop:
A workshop led by Tim O’Brien will have students read and discuss a maximum of 2 unconventional short stories per workshop. Thirty to forty-five minutes of every workshop will also be dedicated to conceptual free writing, outside any project the students are currently working on. TXST MFA poetry and fiction students are welcome to send their short story in for consideration.
- Location:
- Flowers Hall 230; 230
- Cost:
- Free
- Contact:
- Dr. Cecily Parks; cecily.parks@txstate.edu
Dr. drea brown; drea.brown@txstate.edu - Campus Sponsor:
- English Department
FELISPEAKS is a Nigerian-Irish Poet, Performer, Playwright from County Longford, currently based in Dublin City. FELISPEAKS was nominated ‘Best Performer’ by Dublin Fringe Festival (September 2018) and went on to win ‘Best Performer’ in 2022. A member of the Poetry Ireland Board of Directors appointed (June 2020), and a member of the Poetry Collective, WeAreGriot. FELISPEAKS is an Artist-in-Residence with Axis Ballymun and Visual Carlow, and an Associate Artist with THISISPOPBABY. FELISPEAKS’ poem: ‘For Our Mothers’ is in the English Ordinary Level Leaving Certificate Curriculum (2023 and 2025), as is their poem “Rainbow Blood” (2025). In 2020, FELISPEAKS commissioned a new piece for RTÉ’s The Big Picture on the theme of ‘the New Normal,’ this poem, entitled Still captured the minds of the nation and has been performed to audiences all over the country. Of late, FELISPEAKS has been commissioned by the Irish Repertory Theatre and Fishamble: The New Play Company for the Transatlantic Commission for Black Irish Artists. FELISPEAKS ended 2021 as an Irish Tatler Woman of the Year with a win in the Catalyst Category - which recognises a woman who has affected change in Irish society in a pivotal way. FELISPEAKS is also an ambassador for Laya Health Care’s Beats TV and Media Campaign.
- Location:
- Flowers Hall 230; 230
- Cost:
- Free
- Contact:
- Dr. Cecily Parks; cecily.parks@txstate.edu
Dr. drea brown; drea.brown@txstate.edu - Campus Sponsor:
- English Department
Nithy Kasa is a Congolese-Irish poet whose work is featured on the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation website, the University of Galway’s archive, the Special Collections of University College Dublin, Poetry Ireland Review and others. She is among the ten poets selected for Poetry as Commemoration for the Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 programme by UCD supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. She's the recipient of I bhFad i gCéin international residencies for Cave Canem by Poetry Ireland, The Arts Council and the Department of Foreign Affairs. She received the Poetry Ireland Commission 2020 and was shortlisted for The Eavan Boland Emerging Poet Award 2021. Her debut collection of poetry, Palm Wine Tapper and The Boy at Jericho, Doire Press 2022, was selected by the Art Council of Ireland for the ‘read mór’ for Culture Night Ireland 2022, was listed among the top poetry books of 2022 by the Irish Times, and was shortlisted for the Pigott Poetry Prize 2023. Nithy is also a facilitator registered with the Irish Writers Centre.
- Cost:
- Free
- Contact:
- Name: Bianca Alyssa Pérez
Email: mfinearts@txstate.edu - Campus Sponsor:
- Main TXST calendar
Tim O’Brien is the author of nine books, including the universally acclaimed books, The Things They Carried, and Going After Cacciato, winner of the 1978 National Book Award. His other novels include If I Die in a Combat Zone: Box Me Up and Ship Me Home; Northern Lights; The Nuclear Age; Tomcat in Love; July, July; and In the Lake of the Woods. His most recent book is the memoir Dad's Maybe Book. He was a major contributor to Ken Burns’ renowned PBS documentary on the Vietnam War (2017), where his writing was featured. In 2012, O'Brien received both the Texas Writer Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation's Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award.
Description of workshop:
A workshop led by Tim O’Brien will have students read and discuss a maximum of 2 unconventional short stories per workshop. Thirty to forty-five minutes of every workshop will also be dedicated to conceptual free writing, outside any project the students are currently working on. TXST MFA poetry and fiction students are welcome to send their short story in for consideration.
Description of workshop:
A workshop led by Tim O’Brien will have students read and discuss a maximum of 2 unconventional short stories per workshop. Thirty to forty-five minutes of every workshop will also be dedicated to conceptual free writing, outside any project the students are currently working on. TXST MFA poetry and fiction students are welcome to send their short story in for consideration.
- Location:
- Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center, 508 Center Street, Kyle, Texas 78640
- Cost:
- Free
- Contact:
- Bianca Alyssa Pérez, mfinearts@txstate.edu
- Campus Sponsor:
- Department of English
Cassandra Lane’s memoir We Are Bridges, which won the Louise Merriwether First Book Prize, was praised as “a stunning contribution to what must become our collective memory” (NPR). Shuttling between the twentieth-century South and contemporary Los Angeles, it traces the effects of racial violence on three generations of one family. Cassandra Lane lives in Los Angeles, and her nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times, The Millions, Literary Hub, and elsewhere.
- Location:
- Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center; 508 Center St. Kyle, TX 78640
- Cost:
- Free
- Contact:
- Name: Bianca Alyssa Pérez
Email: mfinearts@txstate.edu - Campus Sponsor:
- TXST MFA in Creative Writing
aomi Shihab Nye is the author and/or editor of more than 30 volumes. Her books of poetry include 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, A Maze Me: Poems for Girls, Red Suitcase, Words Under the Words, Fuel, and You & Yours (a best-selling poetry book of 2006). She is also the author of Mint Snowball, Never in a Hurry, I’ll Ask You Three Times, Are you Okay? Tales of Driving and Being Driven (essays); Habibi and Going Going (novels for young readers); Baby Radar, Sitti's Secrets, and Famous (picture books) and There Is No Long Distance Now (a collection of very short stories).
Other works include several prize-winning poetry anthologies for young readers, including Time You Let Me In, This Same Sky, The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems & Paintings from the Middle East, What Have You Lost?, and Transfer. Her collection of poems for young adults entitled Honeybee won the 2008 Arab American Book Award in the Children’s/Young Adult category. Her novel for children, The Turtle of Oman, was chosen both a Best Book of 2014 by The Horn Book and a 2015 Notable Children's Book by the American Library Association. The Turtle of Oman was also awarded the 2015 Middle East Book Award for Youth Literature. She was named Young People's Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation in 2019, awarded the 2019 Lon Tinkle Award by the Texas Institute of Letters, and elected into The American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2021. Her most recent books are Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners (2018; Greenwillow Books, HarperCollins) and The Tiny Journalist (2019; BOA Editions).
Description of workshop:
A workshop led by Naomi Shihab Nye where MFA students are asked to bring poems to the session (they can be based on her prompt or not). Students will then critique and provide helpful suggestions to each other as Naomi leads and gives her insight. TXST MFA poetry and fiction students are welcome to send their poems in for consideration.
Other works include several prize-winning poetry anthologies for young readers, including Time You Let Me In, This Same Sky, The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems & Paintings from the Middle East, What Have You Lost?, and Transfer. Her collection of poems for young adults entitled Honeybee won the 2008 Arab American Book Award in the Children’s/Young Adult category. Her novel for children, The Turtle of Oman, was chosen both a Best Book of 2014 by The Horn Book and a 2015 Notable Children's Book by the American Library Association. The Turtle of Oman was also awarded the 2015 Middle East Book Award for Youth Literature. She was named Young People's Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation in 2019, awarded the 2019 Lon Tinkle Award by the Texas Institute of Letters, and elected into The American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2021. Her most recent books are Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners (2018; Greenwillow Books, HarperCollins) and The Tiny Journalist (2019; BOA Editions).
Description of workshop:
A workshop led by Naomi Shihab Nye where MFA students are asked to bring poems to the session (they can be based on her prompt or not). Students will then critique and provide helpful suggestions to each other as Naomi leads and gives her insight. TXST MFA poetry and fiction students are welcome to send their poems in for consideration.
- Cost:
- Free
- Contact:
- Name: Bianca Alyssa Pérez
Email: mfinearts@txstate.edu - Campus Sponsor:
- Main TXST calendar
Tim O’Brien is the author of nine books, including the universally acclaimed books, The Things They Carried, and Going After Cacciato, winner of the 1978 National Book Award. His other novels include If I Die in a Combat Zone: Box Me Up and Ship Me Home; Northern Lights; The Nuclear Age; Tomcat in Love; July, July; and In the Lake of the Woods. His most recent book is the memoir Dad's Maybe Book. He was a major contributor to Ken Burns’ renowned PBS documentary on the Vietnam War (2017), where his writing was featured. In 2012, O'Brien received both the Texas Writer Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation's Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award.
Description of workshop:
A workshop led by Tim O’Brien will have students read and discuss a maximum of 2 unconventional short stories per workshop. Thirty to forty-five minutes of every workshop will also be dedicated to conceptual free writing, outside any project the students are currently working on. TXST MFA poetry and fiction students are welcome to send their short story in for consideration.
Description of workshop:
A workshop led by Tim O’Brien will have students read and discuss a maximum of 2 unconventional short stories per workshop. Thirty to forty-five minutes of every workshop will also be dedicated to conceptual free writing, outside any project the students are currently working on. TXST MFA poetry and fiction students are welcome to send their short story in for consideration.
- Location:
- The Wittliff Collections
- Cost:
- Free
- Contact:
- Dr. Cecily Parks; cecily.parks@txstate.edu
- Campus Sponsor:
- Department of English
Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin shared an Emmy nomination with several producers for “Outstanding Drama Series” for Chicago Hope and in 2003 they won a Writers Guild of America award for the pilot episode of The Education of Max Bickford. They are known for The Killing and Hit and Run on Netflix; HBO’s Carnivale; The Riches on FX; Showtime’s Brotherhood, as well as Judging Amy, Battlestar Galactica, FlashForward, and Z: The Beginning of Everything, among others.
- Location:
- Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center; 508 Center St. Kyle, TX 78640
- Cost:
- Free
- Contact:
- Name: Bianca Alyssa Pérez
Email: mfinearts@txstate.edu - Campus Sponsor:
- TXST MFA in Creative Writing
Naomi Shihab Nye is the author and/or editor of more than 30 volumes. Her books of poetry include 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, A Maze Me: Poems for Girls, Red Suitcase, Words Under the Words, Fuel, and You & Yours (a best-selling poetry book of 2006). She is also the author of Mint Snowball, Never in a Hurry, I’ll Ask You Three Times, Are you Okay? Tales of Driving and Being Driven (essays); Habibi and Going Going (novels for young readers); Baby Radar, Sitti's Secrets, and Famous (picture books) and There Is No Long Distance Now (a collection of very short stories).
Other works include several prize-winning poetry anthologies for young readers, including Time You Let Me In, This Same Sky, The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems & Paintings from the Middle East, What Have You Lost?, and Transfer. Her collection of poems for young adults entitled Honeybee won the 2008 Arab American Book Award in the Children’s/Young Adult category. Her novel for children, The Turtle of Oman, was chosen both a Best Book of 2014 by The Horn Book and a 2015 Notable Children's Book by the American Library Association. The Turtle of Oman was also awarded the 2015 Middle East Book Award for Youth Literature. She was named Young People's Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation in 2019, awarded the 2019 Lon Tinkle Award by the Texas Institute of Letters, and elected into The American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2021. Her most recent books are Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners (2018; Greenwillow Books, HarperCollins) and The Tiny Journalist (2019; BOA Editions).
Description of workshop:
A workshop led by Naomi Shihab Nye where MFA students are asked to bring poems to the session (they can be based on her prompt or not). Students will then critique and provide helpful suggestions to each other as Naomi leads and gives her insight. TXST MFA poetry and fiction students are welcome to send their poems in for consideration.
Other works include several prize-winning poetry anthologies for young readers, including Time You Let Me In, This Same Sky, The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems & Paintings from the Middle East, What Have You Lost?, and Transfer. Her collection of poems for young adults entitled Honeybee won the 2008 Arab American Book Award in the Children’s/Young Adult category. Her novel for children, The Turtle of Oman, was chosen both a Best Book of 2014 by The Horn Book and a 2015 Notable Children's Book by the American Library Association. The Turtle of Oman was also awarded the 2015 Middle East Book Award for Youth Literature. She was named Young People's Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation in 2019, awarded the 2019 Lon Tinkle Award by the Texas Institute of Letters, and elected into The American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2021. Her most recent books are Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners (2018; Greenwillow Books, HarperCollins) and The Tiny Journalist (2019; BOA Editions).
Description of workshop:
A workshop led by Naomi Shihab Nye where MFA students are asked to bring poems to the session (they can be based on her prompt or not). Students will then critique and provide helpful suggestions to each other as Naomi leads and gives her insight. TXST MFA poetry and fiction students are welcome to send their poems in for consideration.
- Location:
- Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center
508 Center Street, Kyle, Texas 78640 - Cost:
- Free
- Contact:
- Bianca Alyssa Pérez; mfinearts@txstate.edu
- Campus Sponsor:
- TXST MFA in Creative Writing
Justin Torres is the author of Blackouts, which won the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction. He is a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow and has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, among others. His first novel, We the Animals, was a national bestseller and adapted into a feature film. He lives in Los Angeles and is an associate professor of English at UCLA.
- Location:
- The Wittliff Collections
- Cost:
- Free
- Contact:
- Bianca Alyssa Pérez; mfinearts@txstate.edu
- Campus Sponsor:
- English Department
Saúl Hernández’s first book, How to Kill a Goat and Other Monsters, was a finalist for The Wisconsin Poetry Series. He is the winner of both the 2022 Pleiades Prufer Poetry Prize and the 2021 Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize. His poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of The Net and is forthcoming or featured in Split This Rock, Quarterly West, PANK Magazine, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, and elsewhere.
- Location:
- Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center
508 Center Street, Kyle, Texas 78640 - Cost:
- Free
- Contact:
- Bianca Alyssa Pérez; mfinearts@txstate.edu
- Campus Sponsor:
- Department of English
Ben Lerner is the author of several books of poetry, most recently The Lights. He is also the author of the novels Leaving Atocha Station, 10:04, and The Topeka School, as well as a book-length essay, The Hatred of Poetry. He has been a finalist for the National Book Award and received fellowships from the Fulbright, Guggenheim, and MacArthur Foundations, among other honors. He is a Distinguished Professor of English at Brooklyn College.