A.K. Smith Reading Series

Fall 2024 A.K. Smith Reading Series Schedule

Readings are open to all! Food and beverages will be served.

CANCELLED! TOMMY ORANGE

Tommy Orange is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel There There, a multi-generational, relentlessly paced

story about a side of America few of us have ever seen: the lives of urban Native Americans. There There was one of The New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of the Year, and won the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and the Pen/Hemingway Award. There There was also longlisted for the National Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His new novel, Wandering Stars, was published in February 2024.

Orange graduated from the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, and was a 2014 MacDowell Fellow and a 2016 Writing by Writers Fellow. He is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He was born and raised in Oakland, California.

 

DEBORAH JACKSON TAFFA

Tuesday, November 12th- 4:30 p.m.- Reese Room/Smith House

Deborah Jackson Taffa’s memoir, WHISKEY TENDER, has received advanced praise from the following outlets: ELLE Mag, “The Best (and Most Anticipated) Nonfiction Books in 2024,” “The NY Times, “17 New Books Coming in February,” Zibby Mag “Most Anticipated Book of 2024,” San Fran Chronicle, “New Book to Cozy Up with,” Publisher’s Weekly, “Memoirs and Biographies: Top Ten 2024,” The Millions, “Most Anticipated,” and Electric Lit, “Books by Women of Color to Read.” With fellowships and grants from the NEA for the Arts in Prose, the University of Iowa, PEN America, MacDowell, Hedgebrook, Rona Jaffe, Tin House, A Public Space, the Ellen Meloy Fund, the Kranzberg Arts Foundaion, and the NY State Summer Writer’s Institute, Taffa is the director of the MFA CW at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM.