The Department of English presents events with novelist and playwright Nuruddin Farah and novelist Colum McCann. All English events are free and open to the public.
Friday and Saturday, December 7-8, 2012
Staged Reading of Nuruddin Farah's A Stone Thrown at the Guilty
7:30 pm, Stoll Thrust Theatre, Rarig Center
British theater director Irina Brown will direct a free public staged reading of the Somalia-set play A Stone Thrown at the Guilty by award-winning Somali novelist Nuruddin Farah. Twin Cities actors Sonja Parks and Bruce Young will be joined by four young Somali readers. The reading will be followed by a discussion led by Farah and Brown, presenting a rare opportunity to watch a world-class theater director develop a work of drama with an esteemed international writer. A Stone Thrown at the Guilty is a play about colonialism and its impact on the colonized, but it also refers to current events in Somalia. It is inspired by two well-known mid-20th century uprisings in Somalia under British rule. Raised in Russia, Brown has directed numerous plays in the UK, including two at the London National Theatre. Farah has authored 11 novels, including his latest, Crossbones, as well as several plays.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Colum McCann Talk and Reading
7:30 pm, Coffman Union Theater
Colum McCann is the author of five novels, the last of which, Let the Great World Spin (2009), won the National Book Award for Fiction and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. He's published two short story collections. The New York Times Book Review called Let the Great World Spin "[o]ne of the most electric, profound novels . . . in years" and "an emotional tour de force." McCann has also written essays and opinion for numerous newspapers and periodicals, including The New York Times, The Times (UK), Atlantic Monthly, GQ, and Granta. Born and raised in Dublin, he earned a BA from the University of Texas. He is currently Professor of Fiction at CUNY Hunter College's Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing.
