Upcoming fiction reading features 㽶ֱcommunication alumnus Michael Farris Smith
Contact: Sasha Steinberg
STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State is welcoming back Bulldog graduate Michael Farris Smith for a fiction reading and book signing in Colvard Student Union’s Fowlkes Auditorium.
On Tuesday [Oct. 23] at 7:30 p.m., Smith will read from his newest novel, “The Fighter,” published in March by Little, Brown and Company. His visit is organized by the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of English.
“Michael writes fiction with grit and enormous energy about people down on their luck fighting against huge obstacles,” said Michael Kardos, associate professor of English and co-director of MSU’s creative writing program. “His novels are sometimes shocking, always humane and never boring. This is an event not to be missed.”
A 1994 public relations graduate of the university’s Department of Communication, Smith earned his master’s degree from then William Carey College and a doctorate from the University of Southern Mississippi.
Also author of the novels “Desperation Road,” “Rivers” and “The Hands of Strangers,” Smith has been awarded the Mississippi Author Award for Fiction, Transatlantic Review Award and Brick Streets Press Story Award.
His novels have appeared on Best of the Year lists with Esquire, Southern Living, and Book Riot, and have been named Indie Next List, Barnes and Noble Discover, and Amazon Best of the Month selections.
Smith has been a finalist for the Southern Book Prize, the Gold Dagger Award in the United Kingdom, and the Grand Prix des Lectrices in France, and his essays have appeared in The New York Times, among other publications. Smith lives in Oxford with his wife and daughters. For more, visit .
Additional information about Smith’s visit is available by contacting Kardos at 662-325-3644 or MKardos@english.msstate.edu.
MSU’s College of Arts and Sciences includes more than 5,300 students, 300 full-time faculty members, nine doctoral programs and 25 academic majors offered in 14 departments. Complete details about the College of Arts and Sciences may be found at ; communication department, ; English department, .
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