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.

Grant Tracey Live Zoomcast on "North American Review" presents

On Thursday, November 12 at 7:00 p.m. (CST) FTP author Grant Tracey will be featured on a live Zoomcast for "North American Review Presents." This discussion and reading will focus on Grant Tracey's new crime fiction chapbook Winsome / Bend of the Sun, but be ready for a wide ranging conversation (and Jimmy Cagney will likely come up at some point).

This event is free but requires advanced registration. 

In addition to Winsome / Bend of the Sun, Grant Tracey is the author of the Hayden Fuller Mystery Series from Twelve Winters Press. Tracey is Fiction Editor of the North American Review and a Professor of English and the University of Northern Iowa.

Jeffrey Copeland's FTRS Reading Can Now Be Streamed

If you didn't get to attend the live Zoomcast, you can now stream Jeffrey S. Copeland's reading from his new book, Lt. Elsie Ott's Secret Mission. Thanks to all who attended and participated in the Q&A afterwards. 

Now that the Zoomcast has been piloted, the way is clear to bring back the open mic for next month's live-on-Zoom Final Thursday Reading Series featuring Ralph Savarese. Check back for more details.

FTRS live online: Jeffrey S. Copeland Reads on October 29

 Final Thursday Reading Series Goes Live Online
Jeffrey S. Copeland’s Lt. Elsie Ott’s Secret Mission featured

On Thursday, October 29 at 7 p.m. Jeffrey S. Copeland will take to FTRS’s Zoom stage to read from his latest work of literary nonfiction, Lt. Elsie Ott’s Secret Mission: the WWII Flight Nurse Behind Aeromedical Evacuation (MEDEVAC). Lt. Ott was an ordinary soldier called on to do the extraordinary, and she participated in an unprecedented long-distance aerial medical flight that made her the first woman to be awarded the Army Air Medal.
 

While FTRS had a good run of warm weather in the Hearst Center’s outdoor sculpture garden, with the turn of the season we are moving online. Jeffrey Copeland’s reading will happen live, online via Zoom. This event is free but advance registration is required.  Please go to  https://uni.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4pOhMZrGQKe4clAFR5OCxw to register. You can join from a PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone or Android device.
 

Jeffrey Copeland has authored and edited thirty-four books, including Plague in Paradise: The Black Death in Los Angeles, 1924; Olivia's Story: The Conspiracy of Heroes Behind Shelley v. Kraemer;  and Ain't No Harm to Kill the Devil: The Life and Legend of John Fairfield, Abolitionist for Hire, which has recently been optioned for television. He is a Professor of English at the University of Northern Iowa.  To order Lt. Elsie Ott’s Secret Mission go to: https://www.amazon.com/Lt-Elsie-Otts-Secret-Mission/dp/155778941X.

 

Launch and Play: Grant Tracey and Jim O'Loughlin debut new books, jam together at September FTRS

 

click to stream the entire event

If you weren't able to come out for the September Final Thursday Reading Series, you can now stream the entire event. Grant Tracey launched Winsome / Bend of the Sun, his new crime fiction chapbook, and Jim O'Loughlin premiered The Last Caucus in Iowa, his new book on the 2020 Iowa Caucus. Between readings, they also played two of Grant Tracey's original songs.

We're still waiting to see what the weather brings for October, but we are still hoping to be in the Hearst Center's sculpture garden on the last Thursday of the month.