Each year the University of Tampa’s MFA program brings in high-profile poets and authors and occasionally some musicians from across the nation for its Lectores event series.
Held at the beginning of the winter and summer terms. The name derives from the readers who informed and entertained cigar workers in early 20th century Ybor City. High profile, writerly celebs have headlined Lectores.
Past guests include Miranda July, Denis Johnson, filmmaker Hal Hartley and musician Joe Pernice.
The whole idea of the Lectores series is to emphasize the link between the university, its writing program, and the entire bay area," said UT's Steve Kistulentz, Ph.D., director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing. "So my focus has always been to bring writers whose books either are widely known, or ought to be."
"We're a small and self-funded series," Kistulentz added, "which means that we have the flexibility to bring writers who have written more than 20 books, like Richard Bausch, an up and coming writer like Roxane Gay, and an iconoclast like Steve Almond."
The University of Tampa’s 2015 Lectores Series kicks off with readings by Edan Lepucki, author of the novella If You’re Not Yet Like Me, and the aforementioned Gay, writer, professor, editor, blogger and commentator, who released Bad Feminist: Essays and An Untamed State last year (pictured). The series will also feature Richard Bausch, author of 12 novels and eight volumes of short stories including Before, During, After; Something Is Out There; Peace; and Hello to the Cannibals.
Readings will take place Thursday, Jan. 8, 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., in the Vaughn Center, and the series continues Friday, Jan. 9, 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., with readings by Stefan Kiesbye and Mikhail Iossel at Reeves Theater; and on Saturday, Jan. 10, 7:30 p.m., Rebecca Hazelton and Brock Clarke.
For a full schedule, visit ut.edu/mfacw/lectores.
This article appears in Jan 1-7, 2015.