LEWISTON — Sarah Braunstein, author of the acclaimed novel “The Sweet Relief of Missing Children” and prize-winning poet Richard Blanco will give readings at Bates College as part of its Language Arts Live series.
Braunstein’s appearance will be at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24, in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave. Blanco will read at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 8, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave.
Both events are open to the public at no cost.
“The Sweet Relief of Missing Children,” published by Norton in 2011, spins the stories of three young people into a suspenseful novel about the power of running and the desire for reinvention.
Braunstein of Portland received a Rona Jaffe Writer’s Award in 2007 and in 2010 was named one of “5 Under 35” fiction writers by the National Book Foundation. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Green Mountain Review, Ploughshares and Maine Magazine, and on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.”
Braunstein also co-wrote a play, “String Theory: Three Greek Myths Woven Together,” which was produced in New York City in 2009 and at Vassar College in 2010. She teaches at the Stanford University Online Writer’s Studio, in the low-residency MFA program at the University of Southern Maine and at Colby College.
Blanco’s first book of poetry, “City of a Hundred Fires” (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998) explores the yearnings and negotiations of cultural identity as a Cuban American. “Directions to the Beach of the Dead” (2005) continues this exploration of the themes of cultural identity and homecoming.
A third collection, “Looking for The Gulf Motel,” was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press early in 2012.
Blanco’s poems have appeared in top literary journals, including The Nation, The New Republic, Ploughshares, Michigan Quarterly Review and TriQuarterly Review. He is represented in such anthologies as “The Best American Poetry,” “Great American Prose Poems,” “The Breadloaf Anthology of New American Poets” and “American Poetry: The Next Generation.” He has been featured on “All Things Considered.”
For more information, call 786-6256.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
