Creative Writing Program

Florida International University

Writers on the Bay

Writers on the Bay is the Creative Writing Program's reading series that has brought distinguished writers to our campus.  Past writers have included Li-Young Lee, Lee Abbott, Russell Banks, Marianne Boruch, Larry Brown, Robert Olen Butler, Elizabeth Dewberry, George Garrett, Jorie Graham, Tony Hillerman, Maxine Kumin, Dorianne Laux, Dennis Lehane, Elmore Leonard, Walter Moseley, Debra Monroe, Louis Nordan, Gregory Orr, Peggy Payne, Marge Piercy, Robert Pinsky, Bob Shacochis, April Smith, Stephanie Strickland, Gay Talese, Derek Walcott, Ferdie Pacheco, Paul Zimmer, Tom Piazza, Nick Carbo, David Lehman, Tom Franklin, Lolita Hernandez.  Our visiting writers give readings, visit creative writing classes, and meet with students.

 

Fall 2009 Schedule of Readings: All readings are free and open to the public.

 

M.F.A. Alumni Reading

Sunday, October 4, 2009, 6 PM at Books and Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables, Florida

Please join us for a reading by alumni of Florida International University’s M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing.  New books by alums out this year include:  Emma Trelles’s poetry collection Little Spells; J.J. Colagrande’s novel Headz; and Anjanette Delgado’s novel The Heartbreak Pill, which has also been released in Spanish, La pildora del mal amor Faculty members Les Standiford and Dan Wakefield will give memorial tributes to Barbara Parker and Anthony Gagliano.  Joining these readers will be recent graduates Joan Cochran, Scott Cunningham, and Diane Mooney. 

For directions to Books and Books, please call 305-442-4408.

  

Tom Healy and Robert Olmstead

Thursday, October 29, 2009 8 PM at Biscayne Bay Campus Bookstore

Tom Healy’s debut poetry book, What the Right Hand Knows, was published this fall by Four Way Books. His poems and essays have appeared in BOMB, the Yale Review, Paris Review, Tin House, Salmagundi and other journals. He studied at Harvard and Columbia University. He lives in New York City and Miami.

Robert Olmstead is the author of seven books, the most recent of which are Far Bright Star and Coal Black Horse, winner of the Heartland Prize for Fiction and the Ohioana Award. Olmstead is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and an NEA grant.  He is currently a professor at Ohio Wesleyan University.

 

Mike Grunwald

Thursday, December 3, 2009, 8 PM at Biscayne Bay Campus Bookstore

 Mike Grunwald’s book The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida and the Politics of Paradise is a comprehensive look at the history, ecology and future of the Everglades.  Currently an award-winning senior correspondent for Time Magazine, Grunwald has also written for the Boston Globe and the Post. Grunwald is the recipient of the George Polk Award for national reporting, the Worth Bingham Prize for investigative reporting and the Scripps-Howard award for environmental reporting.