SPONSORED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND ITS CREATIVE WRITING PROGRAM Literary events throughout the month! ALL EVENTS ARE FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

NANOWRIMO SKYPE CHAT WITH GRANT FAULKNER TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 3:30 PM ANDREWS HALL BAILEY LIBRARY

Grant Faulkner is the executive director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a national initiative to write a novel over the course of the month of November. He will be Skyping during a creative writing course to kick off the NaNoWriMo initiatives in the Department of English/Creative Writing Program.

JERICHO BROWN, POET WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 7:00 PM NEBRASKA UNION, COLONIAL ROOM & LGBTQ+ HISTORY DINNER KEYNOTE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 6:30 PM CORNHUSKER HOTEL, 333 S 13th Street Tickets available online at http://involved.unl.edu/lgbtqa-history-month-1

Jericho Brown’s poems have appeared in the The New Yorker, Best American Poetry, and The New Republic. His first book, Please, won the American Book Award and his second book, The New Testament, was named one of the best books of the year by Library Journal and the Academy of American Poets. “In his second collection, Brown treats disease and love and lust between men, with a gentle touch, returning again and again to the stories of the Bible, which confirm or dispute his vision of real life.” -- NPR.org REYNA GRANDE, NOVELIST AND MEMOIRIST THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 5:00 PM ANDREWS HALL BAILEY LIBRARY

Reyna Grande’s novels, Across a Hundred Mountains and Dancing with Butterflies were published to critical acclaim and have been read widely in schools across the country. In her latest book, The Distance Between Us, Reyna writes about her life before and after illegally immigrating from Mexico to the United States. An inspirational coming-of-age story about the pursuit of a better life, The Distance Between Us will be republished by Simon & Schuster’s Children’s Division – Aladdin – as a young readers edition in the fall of 2016.

DAVID EBERSHOFF, AUTHOR OF (THE BASIS FOR THE AWARD-WINNING FILM) THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 3:30 PM GREAT PLAINS ART MUSEUM, 11th and Q Streets

Presented by the Cather Project and the UNL Creative Writing Program, in partnership with the LGBTQA+ Resource Center. Ebershoff is the author of the best- selling novel The Danish Girl, inspired by the life of , a pioneer in transgender history. The novel was adapted into the internationally acclaimed, Oscar- winning film, and it was a winner of the and the Rosenthal Foundation Award from the Academy of Arts and Letters. Ebershoff is also the author of bestsellers, The 19th Wife and Pasadena, and The Rose City, a collection of stories. For twenty years, Ebershoff worked as an editor at Random House, where he edited books that went on to win the and the , among other recognitions. In 2013, he became the first editor in history to edit the winners of the Pulitzer Prize in fiction and history in the same year. He has edited books by David Mitchell, , , Sara Novic, Joyce Carol Oates, , , and , among other award-winning, bestselling authors. He also oversaw the posthumous publications of , , and WG Sebald. CHANTEL ACEVEDO, NOVELIST THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 3:30 PM NEBRASKA UNION AUDITORIUM

Presented by the Latina/o and Latin American Studies program of the Institute for Ethnic Studies, along with the Creative Writing Program of the Department of English. Chantel Acevedo’s novels include: Love and Ghost Letters, winner of the Latino International Book Award; Song of the Red Cloak, a historical novel for young adults; A Falling Star, winner of the Doris Bakwin Award and National Bronze Medal IPPY Award; and The Distant Marvels. Her most recent chapbook of poetry, En Otro Oz, was released this year by Finishing Line Press. The Distant Marvels, set in Cuba, centers on Maria Sirena, who has always been known for telling stories. But now, like a modern-day Scheherazade, she will be asked to tell one last story so that eight women can keep both hope and themselves alive.

JOHN H. AMES READING SERIES: READINGS BY NEBRASKA AUTHORS SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2:00 PM BENNETT MARTIN PUBLIC LIBRARY, 136 S 14th Street Ladette Randolph, editor of A Different Plain, hosts a reading by contributors to that anthology of Nebraska fiction writers: Jonis Agee, Anna Monardo, Timothy Schaffert, Karen Shoemaker, and Brent Spencer.

PANEL DISCUSSIONS ON PUBLISHING WITH NYC AGENTS AND EDITORS MONDAY-WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24-26 TIMES & PLACES TO BE ANNOUNCED UNL SLAM POETRY SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26, 7:00 PM NEBRASKA UNION, THE CRIB Watch and/or participate! Any students with 3 poems to perform can sign up to slam.

JONIS AGEE, NOVELIST AND PROFESSOR WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 3:30 PM GREAT PLAINS ART MUSEUM, 11th and Q Streets Jonis Agee, the Adele Hall Professor of English at UNL, will discuss her new novel, The Bones of Paradise , which the New York Journal of Books has called “the finest western novel since .” Agee is the author of 12 books, including five collections of short fiction, six novels, and a book of poetry. Three of her books – Bend This Heart, Sweet Eyes, and Strange Angels– were named New York Times Notable Books. She has won a fellowship for writing from the National Endowment for the Arts, and was presented with the AWP George Garrett Award for Service to Literature, among other honors. With her husband, the writer Brent Spencer, she founded the literary press Brighthorse Books. The Bones of Paradise is set ten years after the massacre at Wounded Knee. At the center of the novel are two remarkable women. Dulcinea, returned to the Nebraska Sand Hills after bitter years of self-exile, yearns for redemption and the courage to mend her broken family and reclaim the land that is rightfully hers. Rose, scarred by the terrible slaughters that have decimated and dislocated her people, struggles to accept the death of her sister, Star, and refuses to rest until she is avenged. Booklist gave the novel a starred review, writing: “A haunting tale… Agee brilliantly interweaves two stories of loss, guilt, and vengeance, which play out against the vivid backdrop of the Sand Hills… Beautifully rendered and thought-provoking.”

View the full schedule online at go.unl.edu/creativewritingmonth