Join Hamline MFA Alumni David Oppegaard, Jeff Smieding and host Satish Jayaraj as they present their respective sci-fi and fantasy worlds.
The writers will each do a short presentation about their worlds and the inspirations and thought process that has gone into its creation before taking questions from the audience. Though the presenters may read from their work, their creative process will be the primary focus.
March 11 @ 7 PM
Giddens Learning Center 100 E
Hamline University
This event is open to the public.
David Oppegaard lives in St. Paul, MN. He is the author of the Bram Stoker-nominated
The Suicide Collectors and the newly released
Wormwood, Nevada. Each novel he writes is different- they range somewhere between literary fiction, speculative fiction, horror fiction, and dark fantasy-and the worlds he builds for each is subsequently different as well. Even David is sometimes confused by the genre mishmash inside his head.
Jeff Smieding is a graduate of the MFA program at Hamline University. His debut novel,
And In Their Passing, A Darkness, is a dark fantasy fairy tale in the style of the Brothers Grimm, and is represented by Red Sofa Literary. Throughout the past ten years, Smieding has performed live in local bands
Kentucky Gag Order and
Belles Of Skin City, as well as given literary performances in art galleries, bars, and bookstores with
The Lit 6 Project,
Electric Arc Radio,
Talking Image Connections, and the
Riot Act Reading Series. Truly, Smieding is a Minneapolitan Man-about-town. He's pretty cool.
Satish Jayaraj is a 2009 Hamline Alumni whose thesis was
Secret Of The Naga Dragons a young adult fantasy novel. He is inspired primarily by global mythology and is always striving in his fiction to find a balance between universal mythological symbolism and individuality while also honoring the pure joy of storytelling.
Of late, more to his surprise than anyone else's, he has also found himself hosting other literary events such as Chris Title's
"Barbaric Yawp" Open Mics. This is the second event he has hosted through the Graduate Liberal Studies Alumni Association (GLAAS).
