The UCA Writing Department hosted readings by writers from across the state, including undergraduate and graduate students for ‘Arkatext’ this week.
Arkatext is a celebration of Arkansas writers both born in the state and those who come here from elsewhere.
On Monday and Tuesday, UCA undergraduate and graduate students read original works. These works included prose, poetry and hybrid works.
Wednesday through Friday, different writers around the state came to do craft talks and readings from original works.
Padma Viswanathan, Kyran Pittman and Matthew Henriksen were the writers invited to do talks and original readings.
Visiting assistant professor from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Padma Viswanthan, read on Feb. 19.
“I got the chance to write my first scene for my first play and I never looked back. I realized that writing would allow me to be in the world and think about things I wanted to think about in a way no other discipline was going to allow,” she said.
Viswanathan, along with Pittman and Henriksen, were all new to Arkatext Fest.
UCA Associate Professor Stephanie Vanderslice said that writers are selected based on genre and whether they have appeared in the past.
“We look for people who haven’t been here before and we have never repeated a writer in about 10 years. We try to cover every genre including fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry.” she said.
The event ends on Feb. 21 at Bears Den at the fourth annual ‘Toad Suck Review Launchapalooza’ where the Toad staff editors and contributors will do readings. This will be a free event from 7-9 p.m. and may not be appropriate for all ages.
