Dec. 1: Minnesota State Mankato's Good Thunder Reading Series Hosts Author Maurice Carlos Ruffin

Thursday, December 1, 2022
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Opening event

Mankato, Minn. – Minnesota State University, Mankato’s Good Thunder Reading Series will host author Maurice Carlos Ruffin on Thursday, Dec. 1 in the series’ second event of the 2022-2023 academic year.

All the events are free and open to the public.

Dec. 1 schedule:

• 10-11 a.m. – Workshop at Emy Frentz Arts Guild Gallery, 523 S. 2^nd, Mankato
• 3-4 p.m. – “Talk on Craft,” Centennial Student Union, Rooms 253/4/5.
• 7:30-8:30 p.m. – Ruffin will read from his work, Centennial Student Union, Rooms 253/4/5. Books available for purchase.

The following information about the author was provided by the Good Thunder Reading Series:

Maurice Carlos Ruffin is the author of “The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You,” which was published by One World Random House in August 2021. It was a New York Times Editor’s Choice, a finalist for the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, and it was longlisted for the Story Prize.

His first book, “We Cast a Shadow,” was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the PEN America Open Book Prize. It was longlisted for the 2021 DUBLIN Literary Award, the Center for Fiction Prize and the Aspen Words Literary Prize. The novel was also a New York Times Editor’s Choice.

Ruffin is the winner of several literary prizes, including the Iowa Review Award in fiction and the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition Award for Novel-in-Progress. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Oxford American, Garden & Gun, Kenyon Review and “Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America.”

A New Orleans native, Ruffin is a professor of creative writing at Louisiana State University, and the 2020-2021 John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi. Ruffin is the 2022 Grand Marshal of the Mardi Gras Krewe of House Floats and recipient of the 2022 Louisiana Board of Regents ATLAS grant. Ruffin has taught at numerous residencies and conferences, including Bread Loaf, Sewanee, Maine Media, Randolph College MFA, and Longleaf.

Founded in 1981, the Good Thunder Reading Series brings nationally and internationally acclaimed writers from diverse backgrounds and literary traditions to Mankato, Minnesota, with the goal of promoting access to great literature, inspiring creativity and connections in our communities, and fostering lively conversations about how writers work and why writing matters.

The Good Thunder Reading Series is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

The 2022-23 Good Thunder Reading Series also receives support from Minnesota State Mankato’s Department of English, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Women’s Center, the Nadine B. Andreas Endowment, the Eddice B. Barber Visiting Writer Endowment, the Robert C. Wright Endowment and individual donors. Barnes & Noble Bookstore at Minnesota State Mankato provides additional assistance.

For more information or to get involved, contact Robin Becker at robin.becker@mnsu.edu or visit gt.mnsu.edu.

Minnesota State Mankato, a comprehensive university with 14,482 students, is part of the Minnesota State system, which includes 26 colleges and seven universities.