Upcoming Events
- Location:
- Zoom (link provided to grad students)
- Cost:
- Free; only open to TXST MFA students
- Contact:
- mfinearts@txstate.edu
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
- Cost:
- Free; only open to TXST MFA students
- Contact:
- mfinearts@txstate.edu
- Campus Sponsor:
- Department of English
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 W Center St, Kyle, TX 78640)
- Cost:
- Free
- Contact:
- Bianca Alyssa Perez; mfinearts@txstate.edu
- Campus Sponsor:
- TXST MFA in Creative Writing
ire'ne Lara Silva is a Chicana feminist poet and writer from Austin, Texas. Her parents were migrant farmworkers. She has published numerous works of poetry and her short story collection won the 2013 Premio Aztlán Literary Prize.
- Location:
- Zoom (link provided to grad students)
- Cost:
- Free; only open to TXST MFA students
- Contact:
- mfinearts@txstate.edu
- Campus Sponsor:
- English Department
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 W Center St, Kyle, TX 78640)
- Cost:
- Free
- Contact:
- Bianca Alyssa Perez; mfinearts@txstate.edu
- Campus Sponsor:
- TXST MFA in Creative Writing
Deb Olin Unferth is an American short story writer, novelist, and memoirist. She is the author of the collection of stories Minor Robberies and the novel Vacation, both published by McSweeney's, and the memoir, Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War, published by Henry Holt.
- Location:
- Katherine Anne Literary Center
- Cost:
- Free; only open to TXST MFA students
- Contact:
- mfinearts@txstate.edu
- Campus Sponsor:
- Department of English
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:
- Alkek Library; Wittliff Collections on 7th floor; Wittliff Collections
- Cost:
- Free
- Contact:
- Bianca Alyssa Perez;mfinearts@txstate.edu
- Campus Sponsor:
- MFA Creative Writing; Therese Kayser Lindsey Foundation
Danez Smith is an American poet, writer and performer from St. Paul, Minnesota. They are queer, non-binary and HIV-positive. They are the author of the poetry collections [insert] Boy and Don't Call Us Dead: Poems, both of which have received multiple awards, and Homie/My Nig.
- Location:
- Zoom (link provided to grad students)
- Cost:
- Free; only open to TXST MFA students
- Contact:
- mfinearts@txstate.edu
- Campus Sponsor:
- Department of English
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 Literary Center
- Cost:
- Free; only open to TXST MFA students
- Contact:
- mfinearts@txstate.edu
- Campus Sponsor:
- English Department
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 W Center St, Kyle, TX 78640)
- Cost:
- Free
- Contact:
- Bianca Alyssa Perez; mfinearts@txstate.edu
- Campus Sponsor:
- TXST MFA in Creative Writing
Ben Lerner was born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1979. He has received fellowships from the Fulbright, Guggenheim, and MacArthur Foundations, and is the author of three internationally acclaimed novels, Leaving the Atocha Station, 10:04 and The Topeka School. He has published the poetry collections The Lichtenberg Figures, Angle of Yaw (a finalist for the National Book Award), Mean Free Path and No Art as well as the essay The Hatred of Poetry. Lerner lives and teaches in Brooklyn.
- Location:
- Wittliff Collections
- Cost:
- Free
- Contact:
- Bianca Alyssa Perez; mfinearts@txstate.edu
- Campus Sponsor:
- TXST MFA in Creative Writing; Therese Kayser Lindsey
Zach Williams is a Jones Lecturer in Fiction at Stanford University, where he previously held a Wallace Stegner Fellowship. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and McSweeney's Quarterly Concern. His story "Trial Run" was one of three that won The Paris Review a 2023 ASME Award for Fiction. Originally from Wilmington, Delaware, he currently resides with his family in San Francisco.
- Location:
- Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center
- Cost:
- Free
- Contact:
- Bianca Alyssa Perez; mfinearts@txstate.edu
- Campus Sponsor:
- TXST MFA in Creative Writing
Nnedimma Nkemdili "Nnedi" Okorafor is a Nigerian American writer of science fiction and fantasy for both children and adults. She is best known for her Binti Series and her novels Who Fears Death, Zahrah the Windseeker, Akata Witch, Akata Warrior, Lagoon and Remote Control. She has also written for comics and film.
- Location:
- Wittliff Collections
- Cost:
- Free
- Contact:
- Bianca Alyssa Perez; mfinearts@txstate.edu
- Campus Sponsor:
- MFA Creative Writing; Therese Kayser Lindsey Foundation
Carolyn Finney, is a storyteller, author, artist, educator, and currently a scholar-in-residence in the Franklin Environmental Center at Middlebury College. Finney's work reveals how nature and the environment are racialized in America.
- Location:
- Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center
- Cost:
- Free
- Contact:
- Bianca Alyssa Perez; mfinearts@txstate.edu
- Campus Sponsor:
- TXST MFA in Creative Writing
Naomi Shihab Nye is an Arab American poet, editor, songwriter, and novelist. Born to a Palestinian father and an American mother, she began composing her first poetry at the age of six. In total, she has published or contributed to over 30 volumes of poetry.