Each year the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, the Department of English and Philosophy and the Creative Writing Program bring a number of nationally known writers to the Murray State campus to give readings of their work and answer questions from students in the Creative Writing Program. The series culminates in the annual Jesse Stuart Kentucky Writers Series. A reading series is also held in conjunction with each residency of the MFA in Creative Writing program. These events are open and free to the general public.

In addition to the Reading Series, a number of student readings are also held throughout the year. A variety of diverse organizations and individuals have sponsored readings in the past, including the English Student Organization, the Black Student Union, and Murray State's student literary magazine, Notations.

MSU Reading Series   |    MFA Residency Readings   |   Jesse Stuart Kentucky Writers Series

Silas House is the author of the novels Clay's Quilt (2001), A Parchment of Leaves (2003), and The Coal Tattoo (2004), as well as the play The Hurting Part (2005). He is a contributing editor for No Depression magazine, where he has done features on such artists as Nickel Creek, Kelly Willis, Darrel Scott, Lucinda Williams, Delbert McClinton, and many others. He has received many honors, including the Appalachian Book the Year, the Award of Special Achievement from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the Chaffin Award for Literature, two Kentucky Literary Prizes for Novel of the Year (2003 and 2005), and the fiction prize from the National Society of Arts and Letters. House has recently finished his fourth novel, Eli the Good, which will be published in 2007. He lives in Eastern Kentucky with his wife and two daughters. You can learn more about him at his website www.silashouse.com.

Judy Jordan's first book of poetry, Carolina Ghost Woods, won the 1999 Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets, the 2000 National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as the Utah Book of the Year Award, the OAY Award from the Poetry Council of North Carolina, and the Thomas Wolfe Literary Award. Her second book of poetry, Sixty Cent Coffee and a Quarter to Dance, was recently published by LSU press. She has also completed two full-length plays and is currently working on a memoir and a third book of poetry. She teaches at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.