Each fall and spring, the Gulf Coast Reading Series provides a showcase for emerging authors from the University of Houston’s acclaimed Creative Writing Program (CWP).
The next installment of this popular reading series kicks off at 7 p.m., Feb. 10 at Houston’s Brazos Bookstore (2421 Bissonnet) and will feature CWP graduate students Sam Amadon, Liz Countryman and Thea Lim. All readings are free and open to the public.
Amadon’s recent book, “The Hartford Book,” was published in fall 2011 by the Cleveland State University Poetry Center. Its poems reflect his experiences living in Hartford, Conn. His first collection of poems, “Like a Sea,” was published by University of Iowa Press in 2010. A doctoral candidate, Amadon served as poetry editor for the university’s Gulf Coast literary journal and has contributed poetry to a number of publications including A Public Space, American Poetry Review, Boston Review, The New Yorker, Ploughshares and Tin House.
Poet Countryman was a 2011 finalist for the Poetry Society of America’s Alice Fay DiCastagnola Award for a manuscript in progress. Her poems have been published in Forklift Ohio, Black Warrior Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Washington Square, H_NGM_N and others. Countryman is a doctoral candidate.
Lim is a master of fine arts candidate and has served as a nonfiction editor for Gulf Coast. Her works have been featured in The Utne Reader, Jezebel and other publications.
Founded in 1986 by Donald Barthelme and Philip Lopate, Gulf Coast, A Journal of Literature and Fine Art, spotlights the literary and visual arts communities. The journal is a partnership between CWP, the Museum of Fine Arts-Houston and the Menil Collection. It reviews submissions from artists and writers from acoss the country. To learn more about the Gulf Coast journal and the reading series, visit www.gulfcoastmag.org.
As part of UH's English department, CWP offers fiction and non-fiction writers and poets intensive training in both creative writing and literary studies. It offers two graduate degrees: the Master of Fine Arts and Doctor of Philosophy. CWP's noted faculty includes award-winning authors and poets such as novelist Antonya Nelson, poet and non-fiction writer Nick Flynn, graphic novelist Mat Johnson and poet Tony Hoagland. To learn more about the program, visit www.class.uh.edu/cwp/.