The A.E. Stringer Visiting Writers Series at Marshall University will host a reading to support the Facing Hunger Foodbank at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26, in room 154 of Smith Hall.
It will feature readings, a Q&A session and book signing with Dr. Jordan Farmer and Rajia Hassib, and is free and open to the public.
Farmer is the author of The Pallbearer (Skyhorse Publishing, 2018) and the forthcoming The Poison Flood (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2020). A West Virginia native, he earned his master’s degree from Marshall University and his Ph.D. at The University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
In the words of Smith Henderson, author of Fourth of July Creek, The Pallbearer is a “feat of sustained tension and deep humanity. With trenchant insight into the way young men are primed to make disastrous choices, Farmer’s moving debut gripped me from the first page and did not let go or disappoint. Get acquainted with Farmer’s work now—you’re going to be hearing about him for a long time.”
Hassib was born and raised in Egypt and moved to the United States when she was 23. Her first novel, In the Language of Miracles (Penguin Random House, 2015), was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and received an honorable mention from the Arab American Book Award. Her second novel, A Pure Heart (Penguin Random House), was released in August 2019. She holds a master’s degree in Creative Writing from Marshall University. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker online, and Literary Hub. She lives in Charleston with her husband and two children.
According to Laila Lalami, author of Pulitzer Prize finalist The Moor’s Account, Hassib’s A Pure Heart is “a captivating novel about family, love, and home. Hassib masterfully excavates the secret loyalties that drive women to make fateful choices and, in so doing, explores important themes of guilt and responsibility, shame and forgiveness.”
The event is sponsored by the Department of English and the College of Liberal Arts.
A suggested donation of two or three nonperishable food items would be appreciated for admission. For more information, contact Cody Lumpkin at lumpkinb@marshall.edu or Wendi Kozma at kozma@marshall.edu.
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Photos: Authors and Marshall University alumni Dr. Jordan Farmer (left) and Rajia Hassib will read from their work Sept. 26.