The 2023 Fletcher Lecture will feature New Orleans, Louisiana-based novelist Maurice Carlos Ruffin on October 12, 2023 at 6 PM in Gouaux Hall, 100 Afton Dr, Thibodaux, LA 70301 on the campus of Nicholls State University.
Ruffin will read from his work, discuss his work as a author, and answer audience questions.
Ruffin is the author of the forthcoming historical novel, The American Daughters, which will be published in 2024. He is the recipient of the 2023 Louisiana Writer Award. He also wrote The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You. His first book, We Cast a Shadow, was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the PEN America Open Book Prize.
A former corporate lawyer and restaurateur, Ruffin is currently an assistant professor of creative writing at Louisiana State University. Ruffin’s work primarily focuses on the lived experiences and history of the diverse Black community of New Orleans where he was born and resides.
MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, Kiese Laymon says of Ruffin’s work, “Ruffin, more than any of the greats I read, searches for that idea, that style, that genre we think is impossible to do well, and he makes it look easy. What he is doing in these short stories is breathtaking. They are so singular and so reliant on each other for wholeness.”
For 37 years The Fletcher Lecture Series has brought major writers and literary figures to campus to speak and interact with students. Past Lecturers have included such luminaries as Robert Penn Warren, Ernest J. Gaines, Noel Polk, Lee Smith, Gerald Early, Maxine Hong Kingston, Marianne Robinson, Mona Lisa Saloy, Yuri Herrera, and the filmmaker Behn Zeitlin.
The 2023 recipients of the Linda Stanga Award for Excellence in Literary Studies and the 2023 Noel Toups Award will also be recognized.
This program is funded under a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of either the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
All Fletcher Lecture Series events are FREE and OPEN to the public.