2018-2019 Events

September 7, 2018, 7:00 p.m., Cabe Theatre

Playwright’s Theatre: Had Orion Loved

Playwright’s Theatre, an extension of the Foundation’s Playwriting Contest, produces dramatic readings of new plays by current or former Hendrix students. Had Orion Loved by Brian Earles (Hendrix class of 2018) won first place in the 2017–2018 Student Playwriting Contest. The play is about what happens “to Leo and Soandso while on a weekend escape to a bed-and-breakfast when they find themselves trapped after an unexpected tornado devastates the town,” according to Earles. 

October 2, 2018, 7:30 p.m., Reves Recital Hall

An Evening with Murphy Visiting Writer Deb Olin Unferth

Deb Olin Unferth is the author of the memoir Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War, a short story collection, and a novel. Her work also appears in numerous journals. She is an associate professor of English/Creative Writing at The University of Texas at Austin and is a founding coordinator of a creative writing certificate program at the John B. Connally Unit, a penitentiary in southern Texas.

November 6, 2018, 7:30 p.m., Reves Recital Hall

An Evening with Murphy Visiting Writer Sy Montgomery

Nature and science writer Sy Montgomery is the author of more than 20 acclaimed books of nonfiction focusing particularly on animal behavior and consciousness. The Soul of an Octopus was a National Book Award finalist, and The Good Good Pig was a New York Times best-seller. In her new memoir, How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals, she reflects on the personalities and quirks of 13 animals—her friends—who have profoundly affected her. 

February 12, 2019, 7:30 p.m., Reves Recital Hall

An Evening with Murphy Writer-in-Residence Trenton Lee Stewart

Arkansas native Trenton Lee Stewart, author of the award-winning, New York Times best-selling Mysterious Benedict Society series for children, has published fiction in several literary journals. His novel for adults, Flood Summer, is praised as “a Greek tragedy by way of Arkansas.” As the Murphy Visiting Writer-in-Residence at Hendrix this spring, he will teach a creative writing course, “Writing and Publishing Fiction.”

March 28, 2019, 7:30 p.m., Mills C

"Flesh and Stone: The Animation of Sculpture in Greek and Roman Literature"

by Laura Hutchison

Laura Hutchison, a 2008 graduate of Hendrix and a Ph.D. candidate in Classics at Johns Hopkins University, will discuss the literary representation of animated statuary by ancient authors, using passages from Classical literature such as Homer’s Iliad, lyric and epic poetry of the Hellenistic period, and poetry and prose of the Roman Empire. She is currently a Samuel H. Kress Fellow at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, where she is finishing her dissertation.

April 11, 2019, 7:30 p.m., Reves Recital Hall

An Evening with Murphy Visiting Poet Greg Brownderville

Arkansas-born poet Greg Brownderville is the author of three volumes of poetry: Gust (which made the Poetry Foundation’s best-seller list), Deep Down in the Delta, and A Horse with Holes in It. He has been awarded prizes and fellowships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Porter Fund for Literary Excellence, and many journals. He is currently an associate professor of English and the director of the Creative Writing Program at Southern Methodist University. 

April 25, 2019, 4:30 p.m., Murphy Seminar Room

The Aonian/Hendrix-Murphy Literary Contest Winners’ Reception and Reading

Winners of the Hendrix-Murphy Literary Contest will read their entries during a reception that also celebrates the debut of this year’s campus literary and visual art magazine, the Aonian.