Acclaimed Author Zadie Smith to Give Free Reading

Photo by Dominique Nabokov

Zadie Smith

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Internationally acclaimed author Zadie Smith will give a free reading of her work as the 2015 Distinguished Reader for the University of Arkansas Program in Creative Writing and Translation. The event will take place at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 5, as part of Fayetteville’s True Lit literary festival and will be held at the Fayetteville Public Library.

The reading is open to the public. No advance tickets are required.

“Zadie Smith is one of the most accomplished and exciting writers working today,” said Davis McCombs, director of the Program in Creative Writing and Translation. “Her novels bristle with fresh voices and ideas. Her fiction and essays tackle tough topics, both social and personal. We’re extremely pleased to bring her to Fayetteville for the True Lit festival.”

Smith is the daughter of an English father and a Jamaican mother and draws deeply from the world in which she was raised and the society she observes around her. Race, class and contemporary multiculturalism feature prominently in Smith’s work, but her books break through social constructs to explore the nuances of families and individuals. Her prose captures characters’ voices at their most personal and profane with humor and hubris intact. Her plots, though complex, clip forward at a rapid pace.

Granta magazine has twice heralded Smith as one of the “Best Young British Novelists” currently writing. Her first novel, White Teeth—a rollicking take on modern-day multicultural London—won widespread acclaim and numerous awards, including the Guardian First Book Award, the Whitbread First Novel Award, the Commonwealth Writers Prize and two BT Ethnic and Multicultural Media Awards.

Her following novels, The Autograph Man (2002), On Beauty (2005) and NW (2012) likewise garnered critical and popular praise. On Beauty won the 2006 Orange Prize for Fiction, and The New York Times named NW one of the “10 Best Books of 2012.”

Smith is also a prolific nonfiction writer, with essays regularly appearing in The New Yorker, The New York Times and prestigious literary journals. She has published a collection of essays titled Changing My Mind and a book about writing, Fail Better, and she’s currently at work on a new nonfiction book, Feel Free, to be published in 2016.

She teaches creative writing at New York University, where she is a tenured professor.

Smith’s reading is one of many events slated for Fayetteville’s True Lit literary festival, Oct. 1-8, which also features an author talk by renowned writer Lois Lowry. The festival is organized by numerous local partners, including the Fayetteville Public Library and Fayetteville Public Schools. For a full schedule and more information, visit the True Lit website at www.truelitfest.com.

About the Program in Creative Writing and Translation: Founded in 1966, the University of Arkansas Program in Creative Writing and Translation in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences consistently ranks in the top 40 MFA programs nationwide, according to Poets & Writers magazine. The Atlantic Monthly named the U of A among the “Top Five Most Innovative” MFA programs in the nation. Noteworthy graduates include Barry Hannah, C.D. Wright, Lucinda Roy and Nic Pizzolatto.

The U of A Program in Creative Writing and Translation Distinguished Readers Series is made possible by the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of English, and the James E. and Ellen Wadley Roper Professorship in Creative Writing.