Omar Bah and Harriet Levin Millan at March 1 Writers Speak
Authors Omar Bah and Harriet Levin Millan will be the next guests in the spring Writers Speak Wednesdays series of author talks and readings at Stony Brook Southampton. Free and open to the public on Wednesday, March 1, this installment will feature a discussion between Bah and Millan on the topic of immigrant and refugee experience. The writers will read from and discuss their work and process at 7 p.m. in the Radio Lounge on the second floor of Chancellors Hall.
Omar Bah, a former journalist, is a refugee of The Gambia in West Africa and a torture survivor. He has written his story in a memoir, Africa’s Hell on Earth: The Ordeal of an African Journalist. An advocate for refugee rights and services, he currently resides in Rhode Island, where he founded and directs the Refugee Dream Center, dedicated to providing services to refugee communities. He is also a motivational speaker and therapist working with trauma survivors.
Harriet Levin Millan, a prizewinning poet and writer, is the author of the novel How Fast Can You Run: a novel based on the life of Lost Boy of Sudan Michael Majok Kuch. She co-founded the Reunion Project, which works to reunite South Sudanese immigrants with their mothers living abroad. Director of Drexel University’s writing program and a professor, Millan has written two collections of poetry and co-edited the textbook Creativity and Writing Pedagogy, a resource for teachers of writing.
Other writers and programs scheduled for the spring series include a Faculty Reading on March 8 featuring Kaylie Jones, Susan Scarf Merrell, Star Black, Terese Svoboda, Julie Sheehan and Lou Ann Walker; Tim Murphy on March 22; Stacey Waite in conversation with Charif Shanahan on March 29; Judith Miller on April 12; and Julie Shigekuni on April 19.
On May 3, the evening will be devoted to readings by students currently enrolled in the MFA in Creative Writing and Literature program at Stony Brook Southampton.
Writers Speak Wednesdays begin with a brief reception at 6:30 p.m., followed by readings at 7 p.m. and then a Q&A and book signing. All programs are held in the Radio Lounge on the second floor of Chancellors Hall at Stony Brook Southampton, located at 39 Tuckahoe Road in Southampton.
For more information, call 631-632-5030 or visit stonybrook.edu/mfa.