Season 21

 

20th FTRS Season Concludes with Doug Shaw & Thomas Hockey

The 20th season ended where it began, in the Outdoor Sculpture Garden at the Hearst Center for the Arts. This event featured mathematician Doug Shaw and astronomer Thomas Hockey, and just for good measure it was simulcast on Zoom. If you didn't get to attend in person or online, you can now stream it below.

Thanks to the UNI Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President for making the 20th season possible and to the Hearst Center for being onboard for an array of outdoors and Zoomcast events this year. Looking forward to season 21, which will start at the end of August.

Now Streaming: Ukamaka Olisakwe @ FTRS

If you didn't get to attend March's FTRS reading featuring novelist and poet Ukamaka Olisakwe, you can now stream it online. Thanks to the UNI Women's and Gender Studies program for co-sponsoring and to Rifat Siddiqui, WGS graduate student, for introducing Ukamaka Olisakwe and for helping to coordinate the book group that read Olisakwe's novel, Ogadinma: Or, Everything Will Be All Right.

In April, FTRS goes hybrid with a socially-distanced reading in the Hearst Center for the Arts outdoor sculpture garden (weather permitting) that will be Zoom simulcast. Follow FTRS on Facebook for more details.  April's featured readers are Doug Shaw and Thomas Hockey.  

Ukamaka Olisakwe at Final Thursday Reading Series

 

March’s Final Thursday Reading Series takes place on Thursday, March 25 at 7 p.m via Zoom with a reading by Ukamaka Olisakwe from her new novel, Ogadinma: Or, Everything Will Be All Right (The Indigo Press). Also, the FTRS Open Mic returns this month. This free event will be happening via Zoom. Register at: https://uni.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_k0Y1Q1BxQLSV1nQcYzmKmA.

Ukamaka Olisakwe’s Ogadinma: Or, Everything Will Be All Right is a story of departure, loss and adaptation that has been celebrated as “a stirring, unflinching novel that further cements Olisakwe as an important feminist voice.” Olisakwe is also the author of the 2012 novel, Eyes of a Goddess. In 2014, she was named one of Africa’s most promising writers under the age of 40 by the UNESCO World Book Capital for the Africa39 project.

Prior to Olisakwe’s reading, the FTRS open mic will be back. Email jim.oloughlin@uni.edu before the event if you’d like to share your best five minutes of original creative work. Limited slots are available.

The Final Thursday Reading Series is a collaboration of Final Thursday Press, the Hearst Center for the Arts, and the University of Northern Iowa College of Humanities, Arts, and Sciences with support from Sidecar Coffee Roasters and Hansen’s Farm Fresh Dairy. Funding is provided by the UNI Office of the Provost and Executive Vice-President.  This event is co-sponsored by the UNI Women’s and Gender Studies Program as part of Women’s History Month.

FTRS will be back outdoors in the Hearst Center Outdoor Sculpture Garden for a reading by Doug Shaw and Thomas Hockey.

FTRS Kicks off 2021

FTRS returns for 2021. CLICK HERE to join the online event.

Thursday, January 28 at 7 p.m. CST via Zoom

Chelsea & Mark Wagenaar

Chelsea Wagenaar is the author of the poetry collections, The Spinning Place, winner of the 2018 Michael Waters Prize, and Mercy Spurs the Bone, winner of the 2013 Philip Levine Prize. Mark Wagenaar is author of three award-winning poetry collections, including the Saltman Prize-winning Southern Tongues Leave Us Shining. A UNI alum, he is presently at Assistant Professor of English at Valparaiso University.

 

Ralph Savarese's FTRS Reading of When This Is Over: Pandemic Poems

 If you weren't able to Zoom in for Ralph Savarese's reading (and the return of the open mic), it can now be streamed. Look for more info soon on the Spring 2020 FTRS lineup.

FTRS Live on Zoom features Ralph Savarese (open mic returns!)

 

On Thursday, November 19 at 7 p.m., Ralph James Savarese will take to FTRS's Zoom stage to read from his latest work of poetry, When This is Over: Pandemic Poems, a collection of timely and insightful verse drawing on the experience of the pandemic. His reading will be preceded by a Zoom open mic for creative writers.

One week early due to Thanksgiving, this FTRS reading will happen live, online via Zoom. The event is free but advance registration is required. Please go to  https://uni.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_a9iUBydgRuuLadtZMMZ8LQ to register. You can join from a PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone or Android device.

Ralph James Savarese is a professor of English at Grinnell College. He is the author of See It Feelingly: Classic Novels, Autistic Readers, and the Schooling of a No-Good English Professor (Duke University Press) and a book of poetry, Republican Fathers (Nine Mile Press).

Open Mic will begin at 7:00 p.m. followed by Ralph Savarese at 7:30. Attendees are invited to share their best five minutes of original poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. Send email to  jim.oloughlin@uni.edu prior to November 19 to sign up for open mic.

The Final Thursday Reading Series is a collaboration of Final Thursday Press, the Hearst Center for the Arts, the UNI College of Humanities, Arts & Sciences, and the UNI Department of Languages & Literatures.