Five award-winning writers who will be in Newport as featured faculty in Salve Regina’s exclusive winter residency creative writing degree program, The Newport MFA, will host public readings and craft talks in January. All of the author presentations are free and open to the public, and will be given in Ochre Court, 100 Ochre Point Ave.
The featured writers and presentation dates are:
Sunday, Jan. 5 at 3:30 p.m. – Michael Ruhlman
Ruhlman, a James Beard Award-winning food writer based in New York City and Providence, will present a craft talk on Saturday, Jan. 5 at 3:30 p.m. His latest book, “From Scratch,” is a cookbook that explores favorite meals and reflects on the ways that cooking from scratch brings people together. He also hosts the “From Scratch” podcast. Ruhlman received two James Beard Awards – the 1999 award for magazine feature writing and the 2012 general cooking award for his book “Ruhlman’s Twenty.”
Tuesday, Jan. 7 at 2 p.m. – Dawn Tripp
Tripp’s fourth novel, “Georgia,” is a national bestseller and winner of the 2017 Mary Lynn Kotz Award for Art in Literature. She will present a craft talk on Tuesday, Jan. 7 at 2 p.m. Tripp is the author of three previous novels: “Game of Secrets,” “Moon Tide,” and “The Season of Open Water,” which won the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and lives on the coast of Massachusetts with her family. She is currently at work on her fifth novel.
Wednesday, Jan. 8 at 7:30 p.m. and Thursday, Jan. 9 at 2 p.m. – Marie Myung-Ok Lee
Myung-Ok Lee, the first Fulbright Scholar to Korea in creative writing, has received many honors for her work, including the Best Book Award from the Friends of American Writers. She will present a reading on Wednesday, Jan. 8 at 7:30 p.m. and a craft talk on Thursday, Jan. 9 at 2 p.m. Lee is a current New York Foundation for the Arts fellow in fiction and teaches at Columbia, where she is Writer in Residence. Her novel, “The Evening Hero,” is forthcoming with Simon & Schuster, and her young adult novel, “Finding My Voice” is forthcoming with Soho Press.
Thursday, Jan. 9 at 3:30 p.m. – Francesco Sedita and Ann Hood
Sedita, who initially started with self publishing a book at 21, is publisher of Penguin Workshop at Penguin Young Readers, will participate in “A Conversation with Ann Hood” on Thursday, Jan. 9 at 3:30 p.m. Sedita is the author of the “Miss Popularity” series and is writing a graphic novel series called “The Pathfinders Society,” set to release in spring 2020. Hood, founding director of The Newport MFA at Salve Regina, is the best-selling author of three novels: “The Knitting Circle,” The Obituary Writer,” and “The Book That Matters Most.” The two will discuss the publishing world and answer questions from aspiring writers.
Friday, Jan. 10 at 7:30 p.m. – Chard deNiord
deNiord, poet laureate of Vermont, will present a reading on Friday, Jan. 10 at 7:30 p.m. He is the author of six books of poetry, including the forthcoming “In My Unknowing,” due out in February from the University of Pittsburgh Press. He is also the author of two books of interviews with eminent American poets: “I Would Lie To You If I Could” and “Sad Friends, Drowned Lovers, Staled Song.” He is a professor of English and creative writing at Providence College, and a trustee of the Ruth Stone Trust.