PRESS RELEASE
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS
COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS AND COMMUNICATION
CONTACT: Christina Madsen, christinam@uca.edu, (501) 852-2659
Garry Craig Powell, gpowell@uca.edu, (501) 450-5110
October 30, 2015
NOVELIST TO BE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE AT UCA
By Shane Allen
UCA Department of Writing
CONWAY — Renowned novelist Cristina García will give a public reading with a book signing to follow during her visit to the University of Central Arkansas as Artist in Residence Nov. 19-20.
The public reading will be Thursday, Nov. 19, at 7:30 p.m. in the College of Business Auditorium 107. The book signing will follow.
All residency events are free, open to the public and appropriate for all audiences.
García is the author of six novels: King of Cuba, The Lady Matador’s Hotel, A Handbook to Luck, Monkey Hunting, The Agüero Sisters (winner of the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize), and Dreaming in Cuban (finalist for the National Book Award). Her work has been translated into 14 languages, and she is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers’ Award, a Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University, and an NEA Grant, among others.
García has taught at universities nationwide, recently completing her tenure as chair in Creative Writing at Texas State University-San Marcos, and as visiting professor at the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas.
The Miami Herald, in praise of García’s The Lady Matador’s Hotel, wrote: “García [opens] the door to the big questions of existence: Who am I, and what is my purpose in life? The answers she offers — such as they are — come with a sly wit and strong visual style that explodes with color and life.”
Steve Donoghue of the Washington Post wrote of her most recent work, King of Cuba: “The portrait García paints of [El Comandante] — nostalgic but utterly unsentimental, evil but magnetic — is the best thing she’s ever written, a pitch-perfect study of tyranny in winter.”
In addition to her reading and book signing, García will also discuss her craft with students on Friday, Nov. 20, at 11 a.m. in Thompson Hall 331.
The Artist in Residence program is funded by UCA’s arts fee and administered by the school’s College of Fine Arts and Communication. For more information about the program, contact the Office of the Dean, College of Fine Arts and Communication, at (501) 450-3293 or email jdmiller@uca.edu.
The UCA College of Fine Arts and Communication includes the Departments of Art, Communication, Mass Communication and Theatre, Music and Writing. 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.
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