Fall 2020 Reading Series kicks off
Last week marked the start of the Moon City Virtual Reading Series, organized by Moon City Press and the Missouri State English department. Throughout the fall semester, five readers will live stream both on Facebook and Zoom to read a selection of their works. This online series is different from previous years, where readers were flown in to present a live reading and spend time speaking in classes. The online readings are shorter, only about an hour, and the audience is given time to ask questions at the end of the stream. With the ease of access offered by streaming, coordinator Michael Czyzniejewski predicts that more students, as well as community members and outside guests, will be able to attend. Readings for the Spring 2021 semester are expected to be online as well.
“It’s important that our students and community members are exposed to different voices and different points of view” – Michael Czyzniejewski
Taking Care of Our Own
Moon City strives to offer a diverse group of readers while also supporting the community. Of the five readers scheduled, two are Missouri State alumni, one is a part of the Missouri Author Series, and the remaining two are published by Moon City Press. The readers can choose what material to present and may feature published works or new material to try out on the audience.
Liz Breazeale – Wednesday, September 9, 7 p.m.
Liz Breazeale is a Missouri State University alumna. She is the recipient of a 2020 Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her first book “Extinction Events: Stories” won the 2018 Prairie Schooner Book Prize for Fiction. She holds an MFA from Bowling Green State University and lives in Denver, where she teaches at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop. Her work has appeared in Best Small Fictions 2020, Kenyon Review Online, Best of the Net 2014 & 2019, and other journals.
Brenna Womer – Wednesday, September 23, 7 p.m.
Brenna Womer is a Missouri State University alumna and a visiting assistant professor of creative writing at Louisiana State University, where she teaches workshops and fiction. She’s the faculty advisor for New Delta Review and a contributing editor at Story Magazine. Her work has appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Indiana Review, DIAGRAM, and elsewhere. She is also the author of “honeypot” (Spuyten Duyvil, 2019) and “Atypical Cells of Undetermined Significance” (C&R Press, 2018).
Phong Nguyen – Thursday, October 8, 7 p.m.
Phong Nguyen is part of the Missouri Author Series and is the author of three novels: “The Bronze Drum” (forthcoming from Grand Central Publishing), “Roundabout” (Moon City Press, 2020), and “Adventures of Joe Harper” (Outpost19. 2016, winner of the Prairie Heritage Award); and two story collections: Pages from the Textbook of Alternate History (Mastodon Publishing, 2019) and Memory Sickness (Elixir Press, 2011, winner of the Elixir Fiction Award). He is the Miller Family Endowed Chair in Literature and Writing at the University of Missouri, where he currently serves as Director of Creative Writing.
Pablo Piñero Stillmann – October 22, 7 p.m.
Pablo Piñero Stillmann is a published author with Moon City Press and has been the recipient of Mexico’s two top grants for young writers: The Foundation for Mexican Literature (f, l, m) and The National Fund for Culture and Arts (FONCA). His fiction, nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in, among other journals, Ninth Letter, Bennington Review, The Normal School, Notre Dame Review, The Rumpus, and Moon City Review. His debut novel “Ternblador” was published in 2014 by Conaculta, and his story collection, Our Brains and the Brains of Miniature Sharks, was released earlier this year from Moon City Press.
Kathy Goodkin – November 11, 7 p.m.
Kathy Goodkin is published author with Moon City Press and has written poetry collections Crybaby Bridge, winner of the Moon City Poetry Award (Moon City Press, 2019), and Sleep Paralysis (dancing girl press, 2017). Her writing has appeared in Field, Denver Quarterly, Cream City Review, The Volta, and elsewhere. She is an editor for Grazing Grain Press, a manuscript consultant for the North Carolina Writers’ Network, and a writing teacher for various academic and community programs. She lives in North Carolina in a house full of daughters and dogs.
Join us
Live stream events are available on the Moon City Press Facebook page, as well as recordings of all previous readers from this semester. The reading with Liz Breazeale is currently available to view, and the next reading with Brenna Womer is on Wednesday, September 23, at 7 p.m.