by Mel Green

Judith Barrington and Valerie Miner are among the writers participating in the Summer 2011 Northern Renaissance Arts & Sciences Reading Series from July 10–19 at UAA.  This is the fourth year for the event, which is held annually in conjunction with the Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing of the UAA Department of Creative Writing & Literary Arts (CWLA).

We apologize for being late in bringing this news: Judith Barrington, winner of the Lambda Literary Award in 2000 for Lifesaving: A Memoir has already read. But don’t let that stop you from checking out her books and reading them yourself.  Her text Writing the Memoir: From Truth to Art is used in writing programs and  groups in the U.S., Britain, and Australia, and she’s also the author of three books of poetry, most recently Horses and the Human Soul, which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. She was also a contributor to a book no lesbian gardener should be without, Garden Variety Dykes: Lesbian Traditions in Gardening.  Like other readers in the reading series, Judith Barrington is an associate faculty member in UAA’s CWLA department. Learn more about her at her biography there or through her own website.

You still have an opportunity to hear Valerie Miner read — at 8:00 PM tonight, in fact, in Room 150 of the Fine Arts Building at UAA (see map). Miner’s most recent novel, After Eden, is the story of Chicago urban planner named Emily, whose vacation at a Northern California women’s land collective becomes the site of her grieving over the unexpected death of her life partner.  Miner is the author of 13 books in total, including a collection of short fiction, Abundant Light, which was a 2005 Fiction Finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards. Learn more about Valerie Miner’s books, or read her bio at CWLA’s website, learn even more about her at her own website, or you can even connect with her on Facebook.

We’ve featured these two authors because both are lesbian writers and Lambda Award finalists or winners.  But they are by no means the only writers you might want to hear as the Northern Renaissance Arts & Sciences Reading Series continues. Tonight, for instance, other readers featured include Alaska writer Nancy Lord, and writer and playwright Zack Rogow.  And there’s no way that I’ll miss Monday night’s reading with poet Linda McCarriston, one of CWLA’s core faculty who was my teacher when I earned my MFA in Creative Writing in 1997.

Here’s the full series; all programs are held from 8:00–9:30 PM, and are free and open to the public.  See UAA’s master calendar for further info and the UAA campus map for building locations.

• Sunday, July 10, Arts 150: Richard Rodriguez
• Monday, July 11, ARTS 150: Judith Barrington, Ed Allen, Anne Caston
• Tuesday, July 12, ARTS 150: Jo-Ann Mapson, Ernestine Hayes, Derick Burleson
• Wednesday, July 13, ARTS 150: Graduating students reading
• Thursday, July 14, ARTS 150: Nancy Lord, Valerie Miner, Zack Rogow
• Saturday, July 16, RH 101: David Stevenson, Craig Childs
• Sunday, July 17, ARTS 150: Eva Saulitis, Josip Novakovich, Carolyn Turgeon
• Monday, July 18, ARTS 150: Curtis White, Linda McCarriston
• Tuesday 19, ARTS 150: Sherry Simpson, Rich Chiappone