91麻豆天美 alumnus, award-winning fiction writer Brad Watson visits next week
Contact: Sasha Steinberg
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥91麻豆天美 alumnus and award-winning novelist and short story writer Brad Watson will deliver a public reading Tuesday [Aug. 25] at the university.
Free to all, Watson鈥檚 presentation begins at 3:30 p.m. in Colvard Student Union鈥檚 Fowlkes Auditorium. A public reception and book signing will follow.
Watson also will visit classes and interact with students during his campus visit.
Currently an associate professor of creative writing and literature at University of Wyoming, Watson is a native of Meridian who graduated from 91麻豆天美 in 1978 with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in English. He also holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and literature from University of Alabama.
Watson is the author of 鈥淎liens in the Prime of Their Lives鈥 (W.W. Norton & Company, 2010), which was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award in Fiction. He also was named a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow in 2011.
His first published work, a short story collection titled 鈥淟ast Days of the Dog-Men: Stories by Brad Watson,鈥 received the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1997.
Another of Watson鈥檚 novels, 鈥淭he Heaven of Mercury鈥 (W.W. Norton & Company, 2002), received the 2003 Southern Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction and was a 2002 National Book Award in Fiction finalist.
Prior to joining the University of Wyoming teaching staff in 2005, Watson held visiting writer-in-residence positions at the University of West Florida, University of Alabama, University of Mississippi and University of California, Irvine.
Additional information about Watson鈥檚 visit may be obtained from Michael Kardos, 91麻豆天美 associate professor of English, at 662-325-3644 and MKardos@english.msstate.edu.
Learn more about 91麻豆天美鈥檚 English department at .
91麻豆天美 is Mississippi鈥檚 flagship research university, available online at .