Stony Brook Southampton Faculty Members Read at Writers Speak Wednesdays on March 8

Six members of the faculty in the MFA in Creative Writing and Literature program will be the next guests in the spring Writers Speak Wednesdays series of free author talks and readings open to the public at Stony Brook Southampton. Star Black, Kaylie Jones, Susan Scarf Merrell, Julie Sheehan, Terese Svoboda and Lou Ann Walker will read from their work on Wednesday, March 8, at 7 p.m. in the Radio Lounge on the second floor of Chancellors Hall.

Poet, photographer, and artist Black has written six poetry collections including “Double Time,” a collection of double sestinas, and contributed to anthologies. Jones is author of six novels, including Anger Meridian and A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries, and the memoir Lies My Mother Never Told Me. She also founded Kaylie Jones Books, a publishing imprint dedicated to publishing writers who address serious societal issues. Scarf Merrell, a former journalist, has published nonfiction and two books of fiction, most recently Shirley: A Novel. She is also the director of the Southampton Summer Writers Conference.

Sheehan is the director of the Stony Brook MFA in Creative Writing program and has published three poetry collections, Thaw, Orient Point, and Bar Book. Svoboda is the author of six books of fiction, most recently Bohemian Girl. Walker is the author of the award-winning memoir A Loss for Words and three other books of nonfiction, and has also written for numerous magazines and newspapers. She is the founding editor and editor-in-chief of TSR: The Southampton Review, a literary and arts journal.

Writers Speak Wednesdays programs are free and open to the public. The evenings begin with a brief reception at 6:30 p.m., followed by readings at 7 p.m., and then a Q&A and book signing.

Stony Brook Southampton is located at 239 Montauk Highway in Southampton. For more information, call 631-632-5030 or visit stonybrook.edu/mfa. Writers Speak is also on Facebook as Writers Speak Wednesdays; and Twitter as @WritersSpeakWed.