Des Moines Sun

Beginning this fall, the DMACC Celebration of Literary Arts will move to a year-round format, offering a mix of both in-person and virtual events with well-known authors

• The DMACC Celebration of Literary Arts will mark its 20th year in 2023 with a new monthly format that features prominent authors year-round.
• All events will continue to be free and open to the public.
• Award-winning novelists Matt Bell and Peter Ho Davies will open this year’s DMACC Celebration of Literary Arts by giving a Virtual Reading from 12-1 p.m. CT on Wed., Sept. 28, via Zoom.

The DMACC Celebration of Literary Arts today announced the opening of its 20th year with a new year-round format that will officially launch on Wed., Sept. 28, with a Virtual Reading from award-winning authors Matt Bell and Peter Ho Davies.

Beginning this fall, the DMACC Celebration of Literary Arts will host featured author readings on a monthly basis throughout the year. This is a change from the Celebration’s past schedule, which has been previously concentrated across several months during the spring semester at DMACC. The new, monthly events will spotlight a variety of local, regional and nationally known authors, and will also offer a mix of both in-person and virtual formats. All events will continue to be free to attend and open to all members of the public.

“As the DMACC Celebration of Literary Arts marks its 20th year, we’re looking forward to keeping the celebration going year-round with a new monthly format,” said Marc Dickinson, DMACC English Professor and Coordinator of the DMACC Celebration of Literary Arts. “We hope this will allow even more people to take advantage of the opportunity to hear from and be inspired by a diverse group of award-winning fiction writers and poets during the year.”

Sept. 28: Virtual Author Reading with Matt Bell and Peter Ho Davies

Matt Bell and Peter Ho Davies will open the 20th Annual DMACC Celebration of Literary Arts by giving a Virtual Reading from 12-1 p.m. CT on Wed., Sept. 28, via Zoom. There is no cost to attend and all are welcome (click here to register).

Matt Bell (top, left) most recently authored “Appleseed,” a New York Times Notable Book published in 2021 by Custom House, and craft book “Refuse to Be Done,” a guide to novel-writing, rewriting and revision that published earlier this year by Soho Press.

Bell is also the author of the novels “Scrapper” and “In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods,” as well as the short story collection “A Tree or a Person or a Wall,” a non-fiction book about the classic video game Baldur's Gate II and several other titles. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Esquire, Tin House, Fairy Tale Review, American Short Fiction, Orion and many other publications.

A native of Michigan, Bell teaches creative writing at Arizona State University. His novel “In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods” was a finalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award and an Indies Choice Adult Book of the Year Honor Recipient, and was also selected as the winner of the Paula Anderson Book Award, among other honors. Both “In the House” and “Scrapper” were selected by the Library of Michigan as Michigan Notable Books.

Author Peter Ho Davies’ (top, right) most recent books are the novel “A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself,” which was long-listed for the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and “The Art of Revision: The Last Word,” his first work of non-fiction. His previous novel, “The Fortunes,” a New York Times Notable Book, won the Anisfield-Wolf Award and the Chautauqua Prize, and was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. His first novel, “The Welsh Girl,” a London Times Bestseller, was long-listed for the Booker Prize.

Davies has also published two short story collections, “The Ugliest House in the World,” winner of the John Llewelyn Rhys Prize and the Oregon Book Award, and “Equal Love,” a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and a New York Times Notable Book. His work has appeared in Harpers, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, The Guardian and The Washington Post, among others, and been anthologized in Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards and Best American Short Stories. In 2003, Granta magazine named Davies among its “Best of Young British Novelists.” Davies is a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, and a winner of the PEN/Malamud and PEN/Macmillan Awards.

Born in Britain to Welsh and Chinese parents, Davies now makes his home in the United States. He has taught at the University of Oregon, Northwestern and Emory University, and is currently on faculty at the University of Michigan.

To attend the free Virtual Reading with Bell and Davies, register here: https://dmacc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_f20DVCA8T4GismVAAHGLQA

For more information about the DMACC Celebration of Literary Arts, visit https://cla.dmacc.edu or contact Marc Dickinson, DMACC English Professor and Coordinator of the DMACC Celebration of Literary Arts, at (515) 964-6221 or madickinson@dmacc.edu.

Select writings by Matt Bell:

• The Long Damage of Human Want
• Don’t Overthink It: The Argument for Just Starting to Write
• Author website and additional writings: mattbell.com

Select writings by Peter Ho Davies:

• Black Box (from The Art of Revision)
• Chance (originally published in Glimmertrain)
• Author website: peterhodavies.com

Original source can be found here.