Bret Anthony Johnston Craft Talk

The MFA in Creative Writing Program hosts its annual Melanie Brown Lecture, this year featuring Bret Anthony Johnston. The lecture event will consist of a public reading of his works on Monday, November 9 from 7 to 8:30pm in the Laughlin Music Hall, Welker Room, followed by a craft talk on Tuesday, November 10 from 2 to 3:15pm in Coolidge Hall, room 134.

Speaker bio:

Bret Anthony Johnston is an award-winning author of novels, short stories, and essays. His most recent publications are the short story collection Encounters with Unexpected Animals: Stories (2026), and the novel We Burn Daylight (2024). Among his many honors are a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, the Glasgow Prize, the Jesse H. Jones Award, and The Sunday Times Short Story Award. After directing the creative writing program at Harvard University for over a decade, he is now the Director of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin. An avid skateboarder for over 40 years, Johnston also wrote the script for the 2012 documentary Waiting for Lightning.

The annual Melanie Brown Lectureship recognizes a noted fiction writer whose work demonstrates a strong sense of place. Johnston’s writings are often set in his native Texas, offering intimate insights into its varied landscapes and demographies. Chatham University’s MFA in Creative Writing program is thrilled to welcome him to our campus.

https://www.bret-anthony-johnston.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BretAnthonyJohnston