Alex Weinstein
By Jennifer Buckley
College of Fine Arts and Communication Media Office
CONWAY — Award-winning creative writer Alexander Weinstein will visit the University of Central Arkansas as artist in residence Oct. 5-6.
Weinstein is the director of The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing and an associate professor of Creative Writing at Siena Heights University. His fictional creations include the short story collection Children of the New World.
“We are thrilled to be hosting a fiction writer as talented and dynamic as Alexander Weinstein,” said Dr. John Vanderslice, professor of Creative Writing and faculty sponsor for the residency. “Weinstein is a rising star in the increasingly popular genre of speculative fiction.
“His stories disturb, amaze and awe you all at once. Once they get into your head, you can’t get them out. And they are all under-girded by an apparent, but not preachy, moral consciousness.”
Weinstein received a Sustainable Arts Foundation Award as well as several others, including the New Millennium, Gail Crump, Hamlin Garland and Lamar York Prizes. He continues to work as a freelance writer and travels around the United States and Europe leading fiction-writing workshops.
Weinstein will begin his two-day UCA residency by teaching a fiction master class, a closed session for Creative Writing graduate students, in Thompson Hall 104 at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5. At 7:30 p.m., Weinstein will give a public reading with audience Q & A, to be followed by a book-signing, in the College of Business Auditorium 107.
On Friday, Oct. 6, at 10 a.m., Weinstein will lead a Q & A with creative writing students in Thompson Hall 331.
Except for the master class, all residency activities are free and open to the public.
The Artist in Residence program is funded by UCA’s arts fee and is administered by the College of Fine Arts and Communication. For more information about the program, call the Office of the Dean, College of Fine Arts and Communication, at 501-450-3293 or e-mail jdmiller@uca.edu.
The UCA College of Fine Arts and Communication includes the Departments of Art, Music, and Film, Theatre and Creative Writing, as well as the School of Communication. The College’s primary mission is the preparation of the next generation of artists, educators and communicators. For more information about CFAC, visit www.uca.edu/cfac or call 501-450-3293.
