Houstonians will experience the talents of the University of Houston’s Creative Writing Program during the next edition of the Gulf Coast Reading Series. On March 25, UH writers will return to Brazos Bookstore (2421 Bissonet St.) for an evening of poetry and prose.
Readings will begin at 7 p.m. and will feature creative writing students Dino Enrique Piacentini and Selena Anderson. Alums Wayne Miller and Julia Brown also will share works. This event is free.
Fiction writer Piacentini is a former arts administrator for museums and galleries in San Francisco. His work has appeared in The Massachusetts Review, Toronto Globe & Mail and Confrontation. He is the fiction editor for Gulf Coast.
Anderson is a native of Pearland, Texas. Her fiction has been published in Glimmer Train, Kenyon Review, AGNI and Southern Review.
Miller earned his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Houston. He has written three collections of poetry including “The City, Our City,” “Book of Props” and “Only the Senses Sleep.” His next collection of poems, “Post-,” will be published this year. Miller teaches at the University of Colorado Denver and is editor of journal Copper Nickel.
During her time at UH, Brown served as the fiction editor for Gulf Coast and received the Inprint Robert J. Sussman Prize for Fiction. She earned her Master of Fine Arts in 2015. Brown also is a singer-songwriter and is recording her third album.
This year, Gulf Coast, A Journal of Literature and Art, celebrates its 30th anniversary. Founded in 1986 by Donald Barthelme and Phillip Lopate, Gulf Coast spotlights the literary and visual arts communities. Housed in UH’s English department, it reviews submissions from artists and writers from around the country. Print editions are published in April and October. To learn more about the Gulf Coast journal and the reading series, visit www.gulfcoastmag.org.
As part of UH's English department, the Creative Writing Program offers fiction and nonfiction 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 nonfiction writer Nick Flynn, graphic novelist Mat Johnson and poet Tony Hoagland. To learn more about the program, visit www.class.uh.edu/cwp/