SUNY Potsdam Welcomes J. Maarten Troost, Along with a Slew of Emerging Writers, for 2015 LoKo Festival

Lougheed-Kofoed Festival of the Arts at SUNY Potsdam Features Famed Humorist, Plus Emerging Writers Series, Creative Writing Showcase and Spoken Word Performances

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The outspoken travel humorist J. Maarten Troost will speak at the Lougheed-Kofoed Festival of the Arts at SUNY Potsdam on Wednesday, April 29 at 7:30 p.m.

POTSDAM, NY (04/20/2015)(readMedia)-- SUNY Potsdam will welcome a number of authors to campus and host creative writing and spoken word events during the 2015 Lougheed-Kofoed Festival of the Arts, from April 24 to May 3.

The outspoken travel humorist J. Maarten Troost will offer an open reading and a question and answer session, on Wednesday, April 29 at 7:30 p.m., in Kellas Hall Room 105. He is the author of the hilarious and critically acclaimed books, "Headhunters on my Doorstep," "The Sex Lives of Cannibals," "Getting Stoned with Savages" and "Lost on Planet China."

The Department of English and Communication will present an Emerging Writers Series, as well as presentations on "The Writer's Craft" throughout the LoKo Festival. In addition, graduating seniors in the department's selective Bachelor of Fine Arts program in creative writing will offer readings of their works.

The SUNY Potsdam Performance Poets will also offer spoken word performances, through the Department of Theatre and Dance.

All events are free, and the public is invited to attend. For a full schedule of events, visit www.potsdam.edu/loko.

The festival's creative writing highlights include:

  • Saturday, April 25: The winners of the North Country Schools Peace Poetry Contest, which is open to area students in grades K-12, will read their entries and accept their awards at 10 a.m. in Dunn Theater.
  • Monday, April 27: Debora Kuan will offer a presentation on "Multiple Lives: Writing and Navigating More than One Genre," at 10 a.m. in the Barrington Student Union Fireside Lounge, followed by a reading from her debut collection of poetry, "XING," at 4 p.m., in the same location. At 5:15 p.m., there will be a student spoken word performance in the Black Box Theater in SUNY Potsdam's Performing Arts Center, followed by a creative writing senior showcase at 6 p.m. in the Fireside Lounge.
  • Tuesday, April 28: Susi Wyss will offer a presentation on "Setting as Character" at 10 a.m., followed by a reading from "A Civilized World" at 2 p.m. At 5 p.m., there will be a creative writing senior showcase. All events are in the Fireside Lounge.
  • Wednesday, April 29: Ian Stansal will offer his own take on "Setting as Character" at 10 a.m., followed by a reading from "Everybody's Irish" at 4 p.m., both in the Fireside Lounge. There will be a spoken word performance at 5:15 p.m. in the Black Box Theater. At 7:30 p.m., J. Maarten Troost will offer a reading and a Q&A in Kellas Hall Room 105.
  • Friday, May 1: MC Hyland will offer a presentation called "Publishing is Personal," talking about contemporary small press culture, at 1 p.m., followed by a reading from her poetry collection "Neveragainland," at 5:30 p.m., both in the Fireside Lounge.

About the visiting Emerging Writers Series authors:

Debora Kuan is a poet and writer. Her debut collection of poetry, "XING," was published in 2011 by Saturnalia Books. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Creative Writing Fellowship to Taiwan, a University of Iowa Graduate Merit Fellowship, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Scholarship, Santa Fe Art Institute writer's residency and two Pushcart Prize nominations. Her poems and fiction have appeared in a number of journals. In 2010, she won L Magazine's Literary Upstart Short Fiction Award. She was both a nonfiction and fiction fellow at the CUNY Writers' Institute from 2010 to 2012, and has taught at the University of Iowa, The College of New Jersey and the New York Institute of Technology.

After graduating from Vassar College, Susi Wyss earned a master's degree in public health from Boston University and joined the Peace Corps. For the next 16 years, she visited and worked in more than a dozen African countries, eventually living for another three years in Abidjan. It was during this stint in the Ivory Coast that she began writing fiction. Upon her return to the U.S., Wyss earned a master's degree in fiction writing from Johns Hopkins University. She subsequently published "The Civilized World," a novel-in-stories set in Africa that was published by Henry Holt in 2011.

Ian Stansel is a writer, editor and teacher whose collection of stories, "Everybody's Irish," is available from FiveChapters Books and was shortlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for debut fiction. He holds an MFA in fiction writing from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a Ph.D. in literature and creative writing from the University of Houston, where he was the editor of Gulf Coast. His fiction has appeared in numerous literary journals, including Ploughshares, Ecotone, Cincinnati Review, Antioch Review and Sycamore Review. His stories have been selected for inclusion in the 2012 and 2013 editions of the New Stories of the Midwest anthology series and shortlisted for Best American Short Stories. His nonfiction has appeared on Salon and The Good Men Project. He currently he serves as fiction editor of the online literary journal Memorious.

MC Hyland is the author of "Neveragainland" and several chapbooks, including "TOOTHLESS ALTAR," "Every Night In Magic City" and "Residential, As In." She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing and book arts from the University of Alabama, runs DoubleCross Press with Jeff Peterson and is a Ph.D. candidate at New York University.

The SUNY Potsdam Department of English and Communication challenges students to complete a core of courses that explore the varied ways that people speak, write and read. The department offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees, as well as SUNY's only BFA program in creative writing. For more information, visit www.potsdam.edu/academics/AAS/Engl.

These are just a few of the many guest artists taking part in this year's festival. To keep up with the latest, visit www.facebook.com/lokofestival.

North Country Public Radio is the media sponsor for the 2015 Lougheed-Kofoed Festival of the Arts at SUNY Potsdam.

For a full schedule and listing of events, visit www.potsdam.edu/loko.

Founded in 1816, The State University of New York at Potsdam is one of only three arts campuses in the entire SUNY system. SUNY Potsdam's arts curriculum offers the full palette: music, theatre, dance, fine arts and creative writing. No matter the discipline, people from all backgrounds can find their creative compass at Potsdam, with myriad arts immersion experiences available for both campus and community.

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