September 19, 2017 (Jackson, Miss.) - The Belhaven English Department will host novelist Michael Farris Smith for a reading of his published works and works in progress on September 25, 5:00 p.m. The visiting writer series, happening in the Student Center Theatre, is free and open to the public. Smith will be answering questions as well as speaking with students on a variety of topics about writing.
Smith is the award-winning author of Desperation Road,Rivers, and The Hands of Strangers. Desperation Road is an Amazon Best Book, Indie Next List selection and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers choice. Rivers was named in numerous “Best of the Year” lists and garnered the Mississippi Author Award for fiction. His short fiction has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, andhis essays have appeared in The New York Times, Catfish Alley, Writer's Bone and more.The Fighter, his fourth novel, is forthcoming in April 2018. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi with his wife and daughters, and he teaches at Mississippi University for Women.