FARMINGTON — The University of Maine at Farmington will present David Gessner—acclaimed American essayist, memoirist, nature writer, editor and cartoonist — as the first reader in its 2014-15 Visiting Writers Series. Gessner will read at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 25, in The Landing in the UMF Student Center.

Gessner is the author of nine books, including “The Tarball Chronicles,” which won the 2012 Reed Award for Best Book on the Southern Environment and the Association for Study of Literature and the Environment’s award for best book of creative writing in 2011 and 2012. He also is the author of “Wallace Stegner and the American West,” “My Green Manifesto” and the forthcoming “All the Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey.”

His essays have been published in numerous magazines, including Outside magazine and the New York Times Magazine, and have won the John Burroughs Award for Best Nature Essay, a Pushcart Prize and inclusion in Best American Nonrequired Reading.

He recently appeared on MSNBC’s The Cycle to offer his take on the anniversary of Hurricane Sandy.

Gessner taught environmental writing as a Briggs-Copeland Lecturer at Harvard and is currently a professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington where he founded the award-winning literary journal of place, Ecotone.

This event is sponsored by the UMF Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program. It is free and open to the public and will be followed by a signing by the author.


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