Emerging Writers Festival Day 2

Co-sponsored by the English department and MFA program, the Emerging Writers Festival features two days of readings by five up-and-coming writers of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. On the second day of the festival, the authors hold a panel discussion on their experiences navigating life as a writer and the complexities of the publishing industry.

The Festival’s second day, April 13, will include readings from Naomi J. Williams and Jill Talbot, followed by the panel discussion.

Naomi J. Williams was born in Japan and spoke no English until she was six years old. Her debut novel, Landfalls, was long-listed for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and Best American Honorable Mention for her short fiction. Her work has appeared in Zoetrope, A Public Space, One Story, The Southern Review and elsewhere. Williams has an MA in creative writing from UC Davis and lives with her family in northern California.

Jill Talbot is the author of a memoir, The Way We Weren’t, and Loaded: Women and Addiction. She is the co-editor of The Art of Friction: Where (Non) Fictions Come Together and the editor of Metawritings: Toward a Theory of Nonfiction. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Brevity,DIAGRAM, Ecotone, Fourth Genre, The Normal School, The Paris Review Daily,Passages North, and The Pinch. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of North Texas.