Moon City Reading Series
The Moon City Reading Series is a forum that draws in audiences from the entire Springfield community and surrounding areas. The purpose of the series is for faculty and students in the English Department to expose audiences to poetry, fiction, essays, and dramatic scenes through oral readings. Distinguished writers and poets are also invited to present their works for the Visiting Writer, or Blue Moon, readings.
Michael Burns, the creative writing program director, first envisioned the Moon City Reading series. In 1989, Missouri State English professors Jane Hoogestraat and Roland Sodowsky co-founded it. Mary Faucett, owner of Nonna's Italian American Café, named the series after an early nickname for the northern section of Springfield.
The series is sponsored by the Missouri State English Department, the Missouri State English Society, and community donations. Dr. W.D. Blackmon, the Missouri State English Department head, devotes much of his time and energy to the continuing development of the series.
The list of esteemed writers and poets who have contributed to the series includes Evan Boland, Gwendolyn Brooks, Mark Doty, Louise Gluck, Steve Heller, Harry Humes, Rodney Jones, Allison Joseph, Carolyn Kizer, David Lee, Phillip Levine, Howard Nemerov, Sharon Olds, Leon Stokesbury, Quincy Troupe, Bruce Weigl, and Miller Williams.
The readings are always held on campus on selected Friday evenings at 7:30, at either the Ellis Recital Hall or the Plaster Student Union Theater. More than one-hundred people typically attend each reading.
View the Spring 2008 Moon City Reading Series schedule.
For more information about the Moon City Reading Series, contact
Brain Shawver, Assistant Professor
836-5419
Shawver@MissouriState.edu
