Fiction Workshop with
Novelist and Short Story
Writer Paula Champa
7-9:45 p.m.
BA-105
Novelist and short story writer Paula Champa leads a fiction workshop with Meramec students.
One Story? Award
Winning Nigerian Writer
Ngozi Adiche Ted Talks
9:30-10:45 a.m.
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Chimamanda Adichie, an
Ijbo writer from Nigeria,
“tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice—and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding” (Ted Talks). This interactive session invites participants to challenge the single story in their own lives.
Something Else Driving You: Paula
Champa Reads from The Afterlife of
Emerson Tang
11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
BA 105
Paula Champa has spent the last decade writing about car culture and sustainable transportation. Her novel, The Afterlife of
Emerson Tang, spans two continents as various characters trek the globe hunting down parts of a vintage car.
Transport Yourself to the Caribbean: Poetry
Reading and Writing
Activity with
Lauren Alleyne
12:30-1:45 p.m.
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Lauren Alleyne, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, is currently the Poet-in-Residence at the
University of Dubuque. Her poems examine cultural displacement, the transport of temporal sensation, the torment of self-destruction and an interior life of dreams which then turns outward in celebration.
Frederic Rissover Award Winning
Student Play Confused Homework by Katie Bourgeret-Caldwell
2-2:45 p.m.
BA 105
Meramec theater students, under the direction of theater professor Keith Oliver, perform the Frederic Rissover award winning play Confused Homework at the Writing
Festival’s guest reception.
In Between Worlds: Q & A Skype
Session with Iranian-American Writer
Azadeh Moaveni
3-3:45 p.m.
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In Lipstick Jihad,
Iranian-American writer Azadeh
Moaveni explores how her personal identity has been shaped by the clashing cultures of the US and Iran. When she moved to Tehran she found a secret rebellious world of parties, fashion shows, plastic surgery, and drugs.
One Candescent Respiration: Poetry
Reading and Interpretive Dance by
Maria Balogh
9-9:50 a.m.
Confluence Room
Maria Balogh of Col o mbia, South America, reads her poetry and performs interpretive dance from her native Col o mbian culture.
Balogh teaches Spanish at UMSL.
Our Culture, Our World: Hear from
Meramec’s International Students
10-10:50 a.m.
BA 105
International students from countries such as Brazil, Palestine, Turkey, Iran, and
Afghanistan will talk about their cultures back home and how they have been adjusting to life in America.
Why St. Louis?
Patrick McCarthy,
Author of After the Fall
11-11:50 a.m.
Confluence Room
Nearly 20,000 refugees from the horrific war in
Bosnia-Herzegovina found refuge and a new home
right here in St. Louis. Author Patrick
McCarthy, SLU librarian and founder of the St. Louis Bosnian Student Community, will discuss his book, After the Fall, which explores the impact the war and its aftermath had on the Oric family from Srebrenica. This story provides a window into why so many
Bosnians immigrated to St. Louis in the 1990s.
My Favorite Warlord:
Poetry Reading by
Eugene Gloria
12-12:50 p.m.
BA 105
Eugene Gloria teaches creative writing and English literature at DePauw
University in Greencastle,
Indiana. The technique of his poetry varies from free verse interspersed with formal
English features to Japanese hybrids of verse and prose. Gloria establishes himself as a poet of memory, masculinity, and Asian-American political identity.
Performance of
Mary Swander’s one-act play Vang
1-1:50 p.m.
Confluence Room
Mary Swander’s play Vang reveals how legal immigrants attempt to reconstruct their lives in the USA. They end up working in the
American agricultural industry, exposing how a significant percentage of farming here is done by immigrants mostly from third world countries. Swander is Iowa’s Poet Laureate.
Currents Reception & Reading featuring
Student Award Winners
2-3:15 p.m.
BA 105
Join Currents editors and contributors as we celebrate the release of Currents: Volume 48,
STLCC-Meramec’s student produced and edited literary journal. The festival’s award winning student writers will read and be honored at this event.
Refreshments to be provided by Currents.
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Coordinator Donna Dare at 314-539-5285; for matters relating to sex discrimination, contact Title IX Coordinator Pam McIntyre at 314-984-7763; for any other matters, ontact Acting Vice President, Student Affairs Kim Fitzgerald at 314-984-7609.
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Documentation of disability may be required.