Brent Hayes Edwards will receive the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism in Honor of Newton Arvin at 4pm on October 16th in the Old Capitol Senate Chambers.

The Truman Capote Award is a $30,000 prize and is the largest award for literary criticism in English. The award ceremony will be followed by a reception with champagne and hors d’oeuvres.

Edwards is widely recognized for his groundbreaking scholarship on cultures of African diaspora. He has served as an editor or member of the...

Chicago based fiction writers Abby Geni and Jac Jemc will read from their fiction.

Writers’ Workshop Visiting Assistant Professor of Fiction Abby Geni will read from The Wildlands. A finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Chicago Review of Books Fiction Award, The Wildlands was also named a Best Book of the Fall by Buzzfeed, Refinery 29, Bustle, PopSugar, HuffPost, and Real Simple. "Geni's character-driven environmental thriller—think Silent Spring by way of Celeste Ng—centers on...

Susan Steinberg will read from Machine: A Novel, published by Graywolf.  “After making waves with her book Spectacle, bold stylist Susan Steinberg resurfaces with her first novel, a tale of gender, class, privilege and trauma set during a summer at the shore. . . . The narrative grapples with guilt and blame while eschewing formal conventions.”―Chicago Tribune

Susan Steinberg is the author of Spectacle, Hydroplane, and The End of Free Love. She is the recipient of a United States Artists...

Writers’ Workshop visiting faculty members, Alexia Arthurs and Cody-Rose Clevidence, will read from their work on Thursday, October 10th in the Frank Conroy Reading Room at 8pm.

Alexia Arthurs is the author of the short story collection, How to Love a Jamaican. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Arthurs has been published in Granta, The Sewanee Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Vice, and The Paris Review, which awarded her the Plimpton Prize in 2017. She was born and raised in Jamaica...