The Fairfield University MFA in Creative Writing program invites you to join award-winning authors at the 2024 Writers Colloquium: “Writing Soul Into a Broken World,” on Saturday, Feb. 10 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts.

Registration is now open for this free event, which will feature generative writing workshops, panel discussions, and author readings.

Discussions will focus on the role of the writer in today’s world: one that is shaped by vast, impersonal forces – from climate change to modern warfare – in a culture driven by partisanship and discord. 

“I’m pleased that our MFA faculty will join in the day to provide all with a sense of what the craft study of writing looks like at the graduate level at Fairfield,” said Carol Ann Davis, “and to share more about our certificate and MFA programs.”

Colloquium host Phil Klay added, "Fairfield students have long known how transformative our creative writing program can be for those seeking, amidst all the noise and confusion of the modern world, to listen to that inner voice and express something uniquely and vibrantly human. This event, with astounding writers tackling some of the most difficult subjects, will open up the experience to the broader community.”

The 2024 Writers Colloquium is presented by the Inspired Writers Series of the Fairfield University MFA Program and College of Arts & Sciences, in collaboration with the Quick Center for the Arts and the Media Institute. As a companion speaker series to the College of Arts and Sciences' MFA Program, Inspired Writers Series events are designed to not only provide encouragement and inspiration for writers, but also to inform, entertain, and enlighten any participant with lively discussions from top authors. 

Writers and aspiring writers of all genres and levels are welcome to participate in the Colloquium. Advance registration is required on quickcenter.com or by calling the Quick Center Box Office at 203-254-4010, Monday through Friday, from 12 to 5 p.m. 

The 2024 Writers Colloquium schedule is as follows:

10 a.m. Doors open; light refreshments served.

10:30 a.m. Introduction by Carol Ann Davis, director of the low-residency MFA in Creative Writing program at Fairfield University and founding director of Poetry in Communities, an initiative that brings writing workshops to communities hit by sudden or systemic violence.

Davis will be followed by Fairfield University MFA faculty member and National Book Award-winning author Phil Klay, who will discuss the challenges and opportunities for writers confronting the modern world. Klay, the author of three books and numerous essays for the New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and other publications, was recently featured in the Talk section of the New York Times Magazine on “finding a moral center in this era of war.”

11 a.m. Opening reading and discussion with Shane McCrae, the recipient of a Whiting Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Poetry, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His work has been named a finalist for the National Book Award, The Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the William Carlos Williams Award, and shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize.

His most recent memoir, Pulling the Chariot of the Sun, which shares his kidnapping from his Black father at age three by his maternal white supremacist grandparents, was published in August of 2023.

12 p.m. Lunch provided for full-day participants.

1 - 2:30 p.m. Engage with the distinguished faculty of Fairfield University’s MFA in Creative Writing Program through generative writing workshops in nonfiction, fiction and poetry.

No need to bring prepared work and no prior experience required. Sessions will include Fiction with Rachel Basch and Karen Osborn, Poetry with Carol Ann Davis, and Nonfiction with Phil Klay.

3 - 4:30 p.m. Closing reading and discussion with author Colum McCann, in conversation with Phil Klay, about his literary work and efforts in the non-profit space. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, McCann has been the recipient of many international honors, including the U.S National Book Award in 2014.

His work has been published in more than 40 languages. He is the president and co-founder of the non-profit global story exchange organization, Narrative 4. His first major non-fiction book, American Mother, will be published in March 2024 and he is working on a new novel, Twist, due out in 2025.

Register to attend full-day or half-day (morning or afternoon) sessions.