The fifth annual Arkansas Festival of Writers begins tonight at 7 p.m. with a reading by Michael Walsh in Giffels Auditorium. Walsh is the author of
The Dirt Riddles, the first winner of the Miller Williams Arkansas Poetry Prize, as well as a chapbook,
Adam Walking the Garden. He is the recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship and a residency at the Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies. A graduate of Knox College and the University of Minnesota (MFA), he works as a course coordinator in the English Department at the University of Minnesota and lives in Minneapolis.
The festival concludes tomorrow night with a reading by Andre Dubus III, also at 7 p.m. in Giffels. Dubus is the author of Bluesman, The Cage Keeper and Other Stories, and House of Sand and Fog (National Book Award Finalist and Oprah Book Club Selection). His newest novel, The Garden of Last Days, is inspired by the rumored visit of 9/11 hijackers to a strip club shortly before their attacks. His writing has received many honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Magazine Award, and a Pushcart Prize. He lives with his family north of Boston.