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Friday, March 29, 2024
Novelist Justin Torres gives a Monday reading at Lesley University. (Photo: Gregory Crowley)

Novelist Justin Torres gives a Monday reading at Lesley University. (Photo: Gregory Crowley)

Lesley University’s summer series of free readings and presentations starts tonight at 7:15 with the screening of a film written by Barry Brodsky and a reading by Sara Zarr, who specializes in writing for young people.

The series runs through June 28 with more faculty readings and special events, including a collaboration of poetry and musical accompaniment and a 7 p.m. Monday visit by novelist Justin Torres, author of “We the Animals” (and named one of Salon’s “Sexiest Men of 2011”), but there are things to keep an eye on this weekend as well:

bullet-gray-smallSaturday’s 7 p.m. reading of fiction and nonfiction by Kyoko Mori, author of three memoirs and three novels, including the 2001 “Stone Field, True Arrow,” which incorporates ancient myth into a modern love story, and nonfiction from Pamela Petro, whose work includes the 2002 “Sitting up with the Dead: A Storied Journey through the American South.”

bullet-gray-smallSunday’s 7 p.m. reading of favorite poems by the MFA Writing Faculty.

bullet-gray-smallAfter Torres’ visit Monday, the events pick up at 7 p.m. Wednesday with a reading by Pat Lowery Collins; and poetry by Thomas Sayers Ellis accompanied by James Brandon Lewis on saxophone.

bullet-gray-smallThursday brings staged readings by graduating stage and screen students from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

bullet-gray-smallFriday is reserved for two rounds of readings by graduating students, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. and from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

The readings are presented by Lesley’s Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences’ Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

“Lesley’s MFA in Creative Writing began with 22 students in 2003, growing over the last 10 years to over 100 current students, 300 alumni and 30 faculty. We are now a durable part of the Boston/Cambridge literary landscape, and our faculty and alumni regularly contribute to the national wealth of contemporary writing,” said organizer Steven Cramer, associate professor of creative writing and director of the MFA in Creative Writing.

The events take place in Lesley University’s Marran Theater, 34 Mellen St., in the Agassiz neighborhood between Harvard and Porter squares.

This post was written from a press release.