Two Events With Award-Winning Author Hisham Matar

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Author Hisham Matar

The University of Arkansas Program in Creative Writing and Translation, the U of A Honors College and the Fayetteville Public Library present an evening with award-winning novelist and memoirist Hisham Matar. A free public reading will take place at the library at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 6, at the Fayetteville Public Library. No tickets are required, and all are welcome to attend.

Born in New York City to Libyan parents, Matar spent his childhood in Tripoli and Cairo and has lived most of his adult life in London. His debut novel, In the Country of Men, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award and won numerous international prizes, including the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, a Commonwealth First Book Award, the Premio Flaiano and the Premio Gregor von Rezzori. His second novel, Anatomy of a Disappearance, published in 2011, was named one of the best books of the year by The Guardian and the Chicago Tribune.

His memoir, The Return, was released in July 2016 and recently was shortlisted for the United Kingdom's most prestigious award for creative nonfiction, the Baillie Gifford Prize. The book chronicles Matar's 2012 return to Libya — after 30 years of political exile — in search of clues related to his father's disappearance, his family's past and the future of this nation on the brink of change.

In addition to the public reading, Matar will hold one-on-one conferences with fiction students in the creative writing M.F.A. program during his visit. He'll also sit down for a Fireside Chat from 4:30-6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 5, in the Honors Student Lounge (room 130, Gearhart Hall). All on campus are invited to this event, which will include a short reading from Matar's work followed by a Q&A. Refreshments will be served.

These events are made possible by the Program in Creative Writing and Translation, the J. William Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences, the Department of English, the Walton Family Foundation, the University of Arkansas Honors College and the Fayetteville Public Library.