For press information, contact Curt Guenther, 901/678-2843

The Creative Writing Club at the University of Memphis will bring four writers to the University this Saturday, March 21, as part of the “Writers on the Road Series.”  Students from the creative writing program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale will read from their works at 2 p.m. in Patterson Hall, Room 456.  The event is free and open to the public.

The readers include:

Mark Brewin, a poet, holds a bachelor’s degree in English and art from Elon University and is a graduate candidate at Southern Illinois University.  His photos and installations have been featured in several publications and on the cover of Pennsylvania English literary magazine; and his poetry has been published in the Corradi Journal, the Alleghany Review, and others.  He is an NCSU Poetry Award finalist and has won the Fredrick A. Hartmann Award for Poetry two years in succession.

Rachel Furey grew up in upstate N.Y. and received her BS degree from SUNY Brockport. Her nonfiction has appeared in the Press 53 Open Awards Anthology, Women’s Basketball Magazine and the Twins and More edition of Chicken Soup for the Soul.  Her fiction is forthcoming in a Main Street Rag anthology. When not writing, you can find her on the basketball court, where she still eagerly awaits her growth spurt, or practicing her twin telepathy.

Rachna Sheth, a fiction writer, grew up in and around Chicago and earned her bachelor’s degree at Loyola University. She dearly misses Ireland, though while living there she almost ended up in the poorhouse. When she isn’t dreaming of leprechauns and perfect pints of Guinness, she is working on her thesis, a collection of short stories on the usual topics: sex, dead babies, talking mannequin heads and sex.

A.K. Thompson, a fiction writer, lives in a cabin on a pond in Makanda, Ill., where vultures descend each fall. She has two smelly dogs, spends most of her time in the woods, sings hillbilly songs while painfully picking a banjo, and watches Hee-Haw.

Founded by Southern Illinois University Carbondale, the mission of the Writers on the Road Series is to generate interest in the art of literary writing through public readings and to cultivate relationships among students who are the next generation of writers and editors. Additionally, the series hopes to support the professional development of graduate creative writing students by providing opportunities for them to practice giving public readings in a variety of venues.  More information about the Writers on the Road Series is available online at  http://www.siuc.edu/~gwf/

As part of the reading exchange, three U of M creative writing students will read from their works in Carbondale, Ill., next month.

For more information on Saturday’s event, contact Sara Hoover by phone at 901-678-3541 or via email at smhoover@memphis.edu