Two noted writers to appear at UCA
An Academy Award-winning writer and a novelist will be artists-in-residence at the University of Central Arkansas in mid-April, the school announced.
Kevin Willmott, who worked with Spike Lee on writing BlacKkKlansman, will host a screening of the movie, followed by a question-and-answer session April 8, a news release states. The film won the Oscar and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts award for best adapted screenplay.
The screening and talk will be from 7-10 p.m. in McCastlain Hall Ballroom on the campus in Conway. During his residency, Willmott will also host workshops in film production and writing, and a symposium on black cinema and Lee.
Willmott has worked with Lee multiple times and has directed several of his own films, including The Only Good Indian. He teaches film at the University of Kansas.
Bonnie Jo Campbell, a novelist and short story writer, will attend three on-campus events April 9 and 10. She writes fiction that “gives voice to marginalized characters and often dismissed rural landscapes,” the university said in a news release.
Her short story collection American Salvage, which was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award in fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and her novel Q Road are both set in rural locations.
Campbell will teach a private master class to students in the Arkansas Writer’s Master of Fine Arts Program. She will also hold a free public reading and book-signing at 7:30 p.m. April 9 in the College of Business Administration Auditorium. The next day, Campbell will be a part of a Craft Talk, with a question-and-answer session that is free and open to the public. It starts at 11 a.m. in Win Thompson Hall.
Six colleges up ante to add graduates
Six public Arkansas community colleges will participate in a national program to improve student support services, a national group announced.
The program is called Achieving the Dream, and includes “a network of more than 220 community colleges.” The group focuses on helping students graduate, with an emphasis on low-income students and students of color.
The colleges are: Arkansas State University-Newport, College of the Ouachitas, East Arkansas Community College, North Arkansas College, Southeast Arkansas College, and Southern Arkansas University Tech.
All of the Arkansas’ 22 community colleges will have access to webinars, but the six colleges chosen for the program will receive in-person coaching and monthly virtual coaching.
UCA senior new Newman fellow
A University of Central Arkansas senior is Arkansas’ only 2019 Newman Civic Fellow.
Itzel Velazquez is double majoring in international studies and political science, and minoring in Latin American and Latino studies, according to a university news release.
She’ll use the fellowship to “raise awareness about immigration issues and educational equity,” the release states.
The Newman Civic Fellowship is a program for students who have been leaders and engaged in “solving public problems,” the release states. Fellows attend a national conference in partnership with the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate and are provided other opportunities and access to apply for “exclusive scholarship and post-graduate opportunities.”
After graduating in May, Velazquez wants to pursue a master’s degree in either political science or international studies, the release states.