FARMINGTON, ME (September 6, 2023)—The University of Maine at Farmington’s celebrated Visiting Writers Series is excited to present award-winning poet Brian Turner as the popular program’s first reader of the 2023-24 season. Turner will read from his work at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, September 21, 2023, in The Landing in the UMF Olsen Student Center. The reading is free and open to the public and will be followed by a book signing with the author.
Turner is the author of several collections of poetry. His latest trilogy: “The Wild Delight of Wild Things”(2023), “The Goodbye World Poem”(2023), and “The Dead Peasant’s Handbook” (2023), all forthcoming with Alice James Books, traverses the landscape of loss, sitting quietly in grief before allowing oneself to gravitate once more towards delight and wonder.
His other collections include “Here, Bullet” (Alice James Books, 2005) was winner of the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award, the New York Times “Editor’s Choice” selection, the 2006 PEN Center USA “Best in the West” award, and the 2007 Poets Prize and “Phantom Noise” (Alice James Books, 2010).
His memoir, “My Life as a Foreign Country” (W. W. Norton & Company), was included in Powell’s Best Nonfiction of 2014 list. Turner’s poems and essays have been widely published in the Virginia Quarterly Review, the Georgia Review, The New York Times, The Guardian, and National Geographic, among others.
Turner earned his MFA from the University of Oregon and went on to serve seven years in the US Army, including one year as an infantry team leader in Iraq with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. Prior to that, he was deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1999-2000 with the 10th Mountain Division.
“The Wild Delight of Wild Things”is available for pre-purchase at the UMF University Store and Devany, Doak and Garret Booksellers in Farmington.
The Visiting Writer Series is sponsored by the UMF Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program.
More Information on the UMF Creative Writing Program
As the only Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program in the state of Maine and one of only three in all of New England, the UMF program invites students to work with faculty, who are practicing writers, in workshop-style classes to discover and develop their writing strengths in the genres of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Small classes, an emphasis on individual conferencing, and the development of a writing portfolio allow students to see themselves as artists and refine their writing under the guidance of accomplished and published faculty mentors.
Students can pursue internships to gain real-world writing and publishing experience by working on campus with The Sandy River Review, a student-run literary magazine; Ripple Zine, a feminist magazine; or The Farmington Flyer, a university newspaper.
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Media Contact: Amy Neswald, UMF professor of creative writing, at 207-778-8024, or Amy.Nesald@maine.edu.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
Image: https://www.umf.maine.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1/2023/09/RP234-006.jpg
Photo Caption: Brian Turner
Photo Credit: Submitted Image
