"Writers Speak" Continues With Jones, Maazel and Wray

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y., April 10, 2009—The provocative and entertaining “Writers Speak” literary lecture series continues on April 14 at Stony Brook Southampton with MFA program faculty member Kaylie Jones. Then, April 22, novelists Fiona Maazel's and John Wray visit.

John Wray

The events are part of Southampton's MFA in Writing and Literature program and its “Writers Speak” series of literary events, which all take place on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. in Duke Lecture Hall and are free and open to the public. For further information, call 631-632-5030.

Kaylie Jones received her BA from Wesleyan and her MFA from Columbia. She attended the Pushkin Institute of Russian Language Study in Moscow. Jones is the author of A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, loosely based on her experiences growing up in an expatriate artistic home as the daughter of famed novelist James Jones. Other novels include Celeste Ascending and Speak Now.

Fiona Maazel's first novel, Last Last Chance, was published in 2008. She is National Book Foundation '5 Under 35' honoree for 2008 and recipient of the 2009 Bard Prize.

Fiona Maazel

John Wray's first novel, The Right Hand of Sleep, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and won a Whiting Award in Fiction. For his second novel, Canaan's Tongue, he traveled down the Mississippi from Memphis to New Orleans on a raft made out of Home Depot surplus, giving readings in towns along the way. This past year, Granta magazine selected him as one of the best American novelists under age 35. He lives in Brooklyn.

Other talks this semester include:

April 29 – Lynne Sharon Schwartz -- Prolific and multi-genre author reads from her most recent book, a memoir, Not Now, Voyager, just out from Counterpoint.

May 6 – MFA students.

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