2019-20 Reading Series

Ladan Osman

Wednesday | Oct. 2, 2019 | 7:30 p.m. | Goodhart Music Room

Poet Ladan Osman’s first collection, The Kitchen-Dweller’s Testimony, was the winner of the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poetry. Born in Somalia, she has received fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center, Cave Canem, and the Michener Center. Osman’s poems have appeared in Narrative Magazine, The Normal School, Prairie Schooner, and Waxwing. Writing of her new book of poems, Exiles of Eden, Somali novelist Nuruddin Farah says, “Osman has an abundance of talent, and she is one of a kind.”

This reading has been made possible with the support of the Jane Flanders Fund and the Marianne Moore Fund for the Study of Poetry.

Tom Perrotta

Wednesday | Nov. 6, 2019 | 7:30 p.m. | Ely Room, Wyndham

Tom Perrotta is the bestselling author of nine works of fiction, including Election and Little Children, both of which were made into Oscar-nominated films, and The Leftovers, which was adapted into a critically acclaimed, Peabody Award-winning HBO series. His other books include Bad Haircut, The Wishbones, Joe College, The Abstinence Teacher, Nine Inches, and his newest, Mrs. Fletcher. His work has been translated into a multitude of languages. Perrotta grew up in New Jersey and lives outside of Boston.

Sam Lipsyte

Wednesday | Nov. 13, 2019 | 7:30 p.m. | Ely Room, Wyndham

Fiction writer Sam Liptsyte is the author of two iconic story collections—the cult classic Venus Drive and The Fun Parts—and four novels, most recently Hark. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Paris Review, Harper’s, and many other major magazines. He is the recipient of the Believer Book Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and he is one of the most beloved and emulated writers working today. Lipsyte teaches in the M.F.A. program at Columbia University.

Akhil Sharma

Wednesday | Feb. 19, 2020 | 7:30 p.m. | Goodhart Music Room

Akhil Sharma is the author of two novels and a collection of short stories, A Life of Adventure and Delight. His first novel, An Obedient Father, was the winner of the prestigious PEN/Hemingway Prize. His second novel, Family Life, was the winner of the Folio Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award and was named one of The New York Times Book Review’s Ten Best Books of 2014. Sharma’s short stories regularly appear in The New Yorker. He teaches at Rutgers University-Newark.

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