PRESS RELEASE
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS
COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS AND COMMUNICATION
Contact: Stephanie Vanderslice, (501) 450-3340; stephv@uca.edu
February 2, 2015
WRITER ELLEN HOPKINS TO BE IN RESIDENCE FEB. 17-18
By Ariana Sumpter
College of Fine Arts and Communication Media Office
CONWAY — Ellen Hopkins, poet, freelance writer, and the award-winning author of 20 nonfiction titles and nine New York Times bestselling young adult novels-in-verse, will be on the University of Central Arkansas campus as an artist in residence Feb. 17-18.
Hopkins’ work includes Perfect, Fallout, Tricks, Glass, Identical, Impulse, Burned and Crank. As part of the residency, she will give a public reading and book signing at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 17 in the College of Business room 107. The event is free and open to the public.
“Ellen Hopkins is a ‘rock star’ of young adult literature,” said Dr. Stephanie Vanderslice, professor of writing, director of the Arkansas Writers MFA Workshop and one of the faculty sponsors for the residency. “So many of our students are familiar with her books. It will be exciting to have someone of that stature at UCA.”
Vanderslice said as part of the residency, Hopkins would meet with students to talk about writing and read from her work.
“In addition to writing famous books like Crank, Ms. Hopkins has written in multiple genres in children’s lit,” Vanderslice said. “She really knows what it means to build a career in that field.”
Other residency activities scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 18 are a craft talk from 11-11:50 a.m. in Thompson Hall and a presentation for youth and their teachers from 4:30-5:30 p.m. at the Faulkner County Boys and Girls Club.
“Whenever visiting artists come to UCA, they are often generous with their writing advice, and I expect this visit will be no different,” Vanderslice said. “Student writers can learn so much about writing by hearing about the individual processes of different writers.”
For more information, contact Vanderslice at (501) 450-3340 or stephv@uca.edu.
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, 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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