‘Underground Railroad’ author will open speaker series

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Colson Whitehead, author of the 2016 National Book Award-winning The Underground Railroad, will open the week-long creative writing speaker series "Lectores" at the University of Tampa on Jan. 5.

Whitehead, a MacArthur Fellowship winner and best-selling author, will be followed throughout the week by other much-lauded authors, including Pulitzer Prize winner David Finkel, a Washington Post journalist and author of Thank You for Your Service and The Good Soldiers, and Florida Poet Laureate Peter Meinke. The readings are sponsored by the University of Tampa's MFA in Creative Writing program.

Every evening during the Jan. 5-12 event, writers will present a roughly 50-minute reading followed by a book-signing. The next morning, the authors will offer an hour-long seminar on the topic of their choice to the MFA program's student body.

The evening readings, which are free and open to the public, begin at 7:30 in the Falk Theatre at 428 W. Kennedy Blvd. in Tampa.

To learn more about the MFA "Lectores" speaker series, call Lynne Bartis at 813-257-3514, or view the series’ online program.