fiction

On her third visit to Tucson, Lydia Davis reads primarily from her 2007 book Varieties of Disturbance and discusses the process of putting the book together. She concludes the reading with the performance of new, uncollected stories.

Al Young reads poems from The Blues Don't Change (1982) and Heaven: Collected Poems 1956-1990 (1992), along with several prose selections.

Robert C.S. Downs gives his first public reading before joining the University of Arizona creative writing faculty for the fall semester. He reads from his first two novels, Going Gently (1973) and Peoples (1974), which was unpublished at the time of the reading.

John Williams reads from three novels: Butcher's Crossing (1978), Stoner (1965), and Augustus (1972).

Pete Fromm reads the story "The Fairest of Them All," which would later appear in his short story collection Dry Rain (1997). Set in Alaska, the story is narrated by a man whose twin sister comes to stay with him following a lost custody dispute over her children. This reading was given with Sandra Alcosser.

Stanley Elkin reads The State of the Art from his collection of short stories The Living End.

Jonathan Penner reads from Going Blind (1977) as well as work published in periodicals.

Elizabeth Evans reads excerpts from her third novel, Rowing in Eden.

This reading coincided with the release of Johnson's novel Nobody Move, the publication of the novel and the date of the reading being only a few days apart. During the question and answer session, Johnson reads a poem from Incognito Lounge (1982), the book which earned him a National Poetry Series Award.

Marilynne Robinson reads from her novel Home (2008), a companion to the 2005 Pulitzer Prize winner Gilead.

Manuel Muñoz reads excerpts from "Señor X," a story from his 2007 collection The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue. This reading was originally given with Tenney Nathanson. 

In this performance, Robert Boswell reads an excerpt from "The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards," from his 2009 short-story collection of the same name.

Jeffrey Eugenides reads from his first full-length novel, The Virgin Suicides(1993).

Amy Hempel reads from her first two short story collections, Reasons to Live (1985) and At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom (1990). She opens by reading Jack Gilbert's poem "Hunger," which she describes as being taped above her typewriter for "years and years."

Jason Brown reads "She" from his short-story collection Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work. This reading was originally given with Steve Orlen.

In this reading given with Joshua Marie Wilkinson, Kate Bernheimer reads two stories from her collection Horse, Flower, Bird (2010).

Sherman Alexie discusses culture, distance, Pan-Indianism, and the author's responsibility, speaking passionately for Native stories told by Native writers.

In this reading, originally given with David Wojahn, Ann Cummins shares a new short story, unpublished as of February 2011.

Elizabeth Rollins reads a new short story, "The Baker's Daughter." This reading was given together with the Poetry Center's 2011 Summer Resident in Prose, Mary Jones.

Mary Jones, the Poetry Center's 2011 Summer Resident in Prose, reads a short story, "Dear Wife of Richard." This reading was given together with Elizabeth Rollins.

Manuel Muñoz reads from his first novel What You See in the Dark (2011). This reading was originally given with Barbara Cully.

Timothy Schaffert reads from The Coffins of Little Hope, published in 2011, and The Swan Gondola, which would be published in 2014.

A celebration of the fairy tale, featuring readings from authors included in My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me (2010), an anthology of new fairy tales edited by Kate Bernheimer.

Rick Moody reads from The Four Fingers of Death (2010).

Daniyal Mueenuddin reads from In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (2009) as well as from unpublished/forthcoming pieces.

C.E. Poverman reads "Intervention," which would go on to be published in his collection Skin (1992). This reading was originally given with Jon Anderson. 

Monica Drake reads a new short story and an excerpt from Clown Girl (2006) as part of the University of Arizona Prose Series.

George Saunders reads a short story from In Persuasion Nation (2006) and an essay.

In this reading, originally given with Poetry Center Summer Resident Harrison Candelaria Fletcher, Naomi Benaron reads from her Bellwether Prize-winning novel Running the Rift (2012).

Bharati Mukherjee reads from her novel Desirable Daughters (2002); she also reads an unpublished short story. This reading was originally given with Clark Blaise.

Clark Blaise reads his short stories "A Saint" from If I Were Me: A Novel (1997) and "Meditations on Starch," which was first published in the journal Salmagundi in 1988 and later collected in World Body (2006). This reading was originally given with Bharati Mukherjee.

Fenton Johnson reads excerpts from Scissors, Paper, Rock: A Novel (1993), Geography of the Heart: A Memoir (1997) and "Beyond Belief: A Skeptic Searches for an American Faith" (1998).

Kate Bernheimer reads from a work in progress called Happy Hour that will be published in Unstuck. This reading was originally given with Cynthia Hogue.

Terese Svoboda reads poetry and fiction from her extensive body of work.

Shannon Cain reads a story from her collection The Necessity of Certain Behaviors (2011) as part of the University of Arizona Prose Series. This reading was originally given with Lydia Millet.

Lydia Millet reads from her novel Magnificence (2012) as part of the University of Arizona Prose Series. This reading was originally given with Shannon Cain.

In this reading, originally given with Aurelie Sheehan, Beth Alvarado shares an excerpt from the short story collection Not a Matter of Love (2006).

In this reading, originally given with Beth Alvarado, Aurelie Sheehan shares excerpts from the novel History Lessons for Girls (2006), as well as a work in progress called One Hundred Histories.

Richard Russo reads the title story from his collection The Whore's Child and Other Stories (2002).

Jason Brown reads from an untitled novel in progress.

Alan Heathcock reads from the collection Volt: Stories (2011).

Aurelie Sheehan reads a story from the collection Jack Kerouac Is Pregnant (1994), as well as two unpublished works.

Lawrence Clark Powell reads from his novel The Blue Train (1977).

Denise Chávez reads from her novel Loving Pedro Infante (2001). This reading was originally given with Loida Maritza Pérez.

Poetry Center Summer Resident Polly Rosenwaike reads an excerpt from the short story Grow Your Eyelashes. This reading was originally given with Samuel Ace and Dexter L. Booth.

Matt Méndez reads from Twitching Heart (2012). This reading was originally given with C.E. Poverman as part of the UA Prose Series.

Aurelie Sheehan reads from Jewelry Box: A Collection of Histories (2013). This reading was originally given with Farid Matuk.

Terry McMillan reads from her novel Disappearing Acts (1989).

Wallace Stegner reads an excerpt from a manuscript that was in progress at the time of the reading; it would later be published as Recapitulation (1979).

Susan Steinberg reads a short story from Spectacle (2013).

Lucy Corin reads from her short story collection, One Hundred Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses (2013).

Rosario Ferré reads from her poetry and fiction, frequently alternating between English and Spanish.

Junot Díaz reads excerpts of his short story "The Sun, the Moon, the Stars," later collected in This Is How You Lose Her (2012).

Tim O'Brien reads his short story "How to Tell a True War Story," later published in The Things They Carried (1990). This reading was given as part of the Writers at Work series.

Benjamin Alire Sáenz reads from his short story "The Rule Maker," collected in his PEN/Faulkner Award-winning book Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club (2012).

Australian poets Vincent Buckley, Les Murray, and David Malouf visit Tucson to read their work, also providing background and commentary. Les Murray reads a selection of poems in chronological order, including his oldest poem "The Burning Crook." Vincent Buckley reads from Golden Builders (1976), Late Winter Child (1979), and The Pattern (1979), as well as some unpublished poems. David Malouf reads both poetry and passages from his novel An Imaginary Life (1978).

Robert Coover reads an uncollected short story titled "A Duel." He also introduces, comments on, and reads from a book he had just finished at the time of this reading titled The Public Burning (1977), which concerns the 1953 execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

John Barth reads excerpts from his novel Sabbatical: a Romance, a year before the novel's release. Copyright (c) John Barth, used with permission of the Wylie Agency LLC.

Robert Boswell reads from the second chapter of his novel Mystery Ride (1993). Antonya Nelson reads her short story "Irony, Irony, Irony," which would later be collected in Female Trouble (2003).

Just after joining the University of Arizona faculty, Elizabeth Evans reads the first chapter of an unpublished manuscript titled Ancient History, parts of which went on to be included in her novel Rowing in Eden (2000).

John Gardner reads from two of his stories, "Coyote and the Dead Man" and "Come on Back."

Elizabeth Evans reads from the first and fifth chapter of The Blue Hour (1995). She opens her performance by reading a poem by W. B. Yeats, "Adam's Curse."

Winners of the Poets & Writers Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award, Laura Kasischke and David Reynolds read from their winning manuscripts. Kasischke reads poems from Housekeeping in a Dream, and Reynolds reads the chapter "Hush, Noah" from In the Waiting World.

Nanci Kincaid reads from a manuscript written during her time teaching at the University of Arizona that would eventually become her novel Verbena (2002). This early draft is untitled, and was originally intended to be the second in a trilogy of novellas collectively titled Three Wives.

Richard Elman reads work unpublished at the time of this reading, including his short story "Almonds with the Children of Long Bay." He also reads "Post Time," the prologue of Namedropping: Mostly Literary Memoirs (1998), along with a short story called "Loving Strangers" from his collection Disco Frito (1988).

Ron Hansen reads two Nebraska-based stories: "True Romance," which combines two of the author's personal experiences in Nebraska and Minnesota, and "Nebraska," which was used as the prologue for a Nebraska-themed issue of Prairie Schooner (Summer, 1986).

Caroline Langston reads her story "The Haitian Necklace," dedicated to one of her former students.

Erin McGraw performs a Southern dialect to read the story Until It Comes Closer from her collection Bodies at Sea (1989).

Tim O'Brien reads a chapter from his novel The Nuclear Age, which would be published three years after this reading.

N. Scott Momaday reads both poetry and fiction for the Writers at Work series. He begins with a series of short epitaphs, followed by a series of charms inspired by the Native American oral tradition. He reads a few more poems, including selections from his collection The Way to Rainy Mountain (1969). He concludes the reading with a selection from his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel House Made of Dawn (1968).

Alison Moore begins her reading with a poem titled "The Extras at the Gates of Eden." She then reads her short story "Snake Woman," which would go on to be published in The Middle of Elsewhere: A Novella and Stories (2006).

Tillie Olsen reads excerpts from Tell Me a Riddle (1961), her collection of short stories; Yonnondio: From the Thirties (1974), an unfinished novel; and the classic work of nonfiction, Silences (1978). Olsen's reading is interspersed with anecdotes and narrative summaries.

Richard Marius reads an excerpt from an early draft of his novel After the War (1992).

Greg Sarris reads a story titled "Waiting for the Green Frog," in the voice of an elderly medicine woman, from his collection Grand Avenue: A Novel in Stories (1994).

Lynn Luria-Sukenick reads two works of fiction ("The Man With The Blues Guitar" and "Still Life With Bath"), along with a short performance piece called "Bomb." "Bomb" is a collaboration with poet and musician Rob Brezsny, whose part is performed here by Jonathan Penner.

Frank Waters reads from his novel The Man Who Killed the Deer (1942) and his memoir Pumpkin Seed Point (1973).

Peter Matthiessen reads from his works of nonfiction The Snow Leopard (1978) and Indian Country (1984), along with a hallucination scene from his novel At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1965).

Elizabeth Evans reads from her novel As Good As Dead (2015).

Joy Williams reads her short story "Escapes," the title piece of her 1990 collection of short fiction.

Leslie Marmon Silko reads from her novel Gardens in the Dunes (1999), as well as from a work in progress, Protect Yourself from Bad Spells While You Get Rich. This reading was originally given with Daryl Ross Begay. 

Jim Simmerman reads from a manuscript that would become his collection Kingdom Come (1999), a series of persona poems written in the voices of various Biblical characters. Jewell Parker Rhodes reads from her first novel, Voodoo Dreams: A Novel of Marie Laveau (1993), inspired by the life of the famed 19th century Voodoo Queen. She reads two scenes from the novel, the first set just before Marie Laveau's tenth birthday, and the second during the performance of one of Laveau's greatest miracles.

University of Arizona fiction faculty member Robert Houston reads excerpts from an early novel and from Bisbee '17 (1979).

Robert Houston reads from the manuscript of a novel in progress with the working title The Book of the South, about Reconstruction era Alabama. He dedicates this reading to the memory of Cecil Robinson, former chairman of the University of Arizona English Department.

Alan Cheuse reads from his novel The Light Possessed (1990), inspired by the life of Georgia O'Keefe and several other U.S. women painters. The novel's title comes from a poem by Walt Whitman, "A Prairie Sunset," which Cheuse reads as an introduction to his own work. Cheuse's novel has "two beginnings," and he reads both: the first is a chapter titled "River."

Bruce Dobler explains the relationship of his work to documentary fiction. He speaks of the necessity of journalistic fiction and the writer's task of capturing "the spirit and mood of a place and a time that would otherwise be inaccessible." Dobler reads from his novel, The Last Rush North (1976), exploring the construction of the Alaskan pipeline. Rather than picking a single chapter in the novel, Dobler reads an assortment of excerpts following one of the novel's many characters, a truck driver named Jill Jones. He closes with an excerpt following a character named Little Nasty, who gets into a fight with a much larger man.

Thomas Rogers reads from the manuscript of his novel At the Shores (1980). At the time of the reading, the novel was a work in progress with the title The Desire and Pursuit of the Whole.

Mary Elsie Robertson reads a chapter from her novel What I Have to Tell You (1989). This University of Arizona Creative Writing faculty reading was originally given with Vivian Gornick.

Leonard Michaels reads from short stories written throughout his career, and concludes the reading with an excerpt from his novel The Men's Club (1981). His uncompromising realist sketches catch characters at their darkest and most vulnerable moments, and are colored with absurdist humor. Stories include those published in his collections Going Places (1969) and I Would Have Saved Them If I Could (1975). 

Kent Nelson reads from his short story collection The Tennis Player (1977). He first reads the title story, followed by "Instants" and "The Time and Manner."

Matt Bell reads from his novel Scrapper (2015). This reading was originally given with 2015 Poetry Center Summer Resident Hieu Minh Nguyen.

In this performance for the Writers at Work Series, Katherine Toy Miller and Vance Bourjaily read from their fiction. Katherine Toy Miller reads six short stories from a collection titled Eleanor, along with a short story titled "The Critical Session." Vance Bourjaily reads segments from a novel-in-progress called The Great Fake Book. Bourjaily ends his reading by performing a short solo on the cornet.

In this performance for the Writers at Work Series, Patrick D. Hoctel reads from a story set in Miramar, Baja California, titled "Playing with Light."

James Hannaham reads the prologue and opening chapter of his novel Delicious Foods (2015).

Erin Stalcup reads from her short story collection And Yet It Moves (2016). This reading was originally given with Vickie Vértiz.

Julie Iromuanya reads from her novel Mr. and Mrs. Doctor (2015) as well as from an unpublished novel. This reading was originally given with Karen Brennan. 

Karen Brennan reads from her short story collection Monsters (2016). This reading was originally given with Julie Iromuanya.

Joy Williams gives the first public reading of "Portion," a new short story.

Charles Yu reads "Origin Story," a draft of a chapter from his novel Interior Chinatown (2020). This reading was originally given with Kristen Radtke.

Manuel Muñoz reads an excerpt from his short story collection The Consequences (2022), which centers on Mexican and Mexican American farmworkers around Fresno, California. This reading was given alongside Ander Monson and Bojan Louis as part of the Distinguished Visitors in Creative Writing Series. 

Bojan Louis reads from his debut short story collection Sinking Bell (2022). This excerpted story revolves around a young Diné narrator in Flagstaff, Arizona, who finds himself working as a chauffeur for his cousin and her friends. Part of the Distinguished Visitors in Creative Writing Series, this reading was presented alongside Ander Monson and Manuel Muñoz. 

Cara Blue Adams, an alumna of the UA MFA in Creative Writing Program, reads a short story titled "Shoulder Season" from her collection You Never Get It Back (2021). This story takes place in Tucson and follows a protagonist who is in an optical sciences graduate program at UA, but decides to leave school and become a writer. This reading was originally given alongside Alberto Ríos and Aisha Sabatini Sloan to celebrate the MFA program's 50th anniversary.

Eileen Myles reads poems from a "Working Life" (2023) focused on daily life, love, animals, humor, and the act of writing. Myles opens with an unpublished essay and concludes with new poems—several of which respond to animal cruelty—as well as a short story.

Dionne Irving reads the short story "An American Idea of Fun" from her second book, The Islands (2022). The story traces the impact of a summer spent in France across an American girl's life. Irving answers questions about the story, The Islands as a whole, and the writers and stories that have inspired her.

In this bilingual reading, Brenda Lozano reads from her novel Brujas (2020) in the original Spanish, as well as from Witches (2022), the English translation by Heather Cleary. The novel reflects on women, power, and language, centering on a shaman or bruja from an indigenous community in Mexico. Manuel Muñoz reads a portion of the English translation.