Published on March 8, 2013 by Bo Morris  
Antonya Nelson

Samford University will host fiction writer Antonya Nelson at 7 p.m., on Monday, March 11 as the the final reader in this year's Birmingham Area Consortium for Higher Education Visiting Writers Series. The event is in room 302-North, Divinity Hall.

Nelson is the author of four novels and six short stories. She has received a number of awards for her works, including the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction and the Heartland Fiction Award. The New Yorker described Nelson as one of the "20 young fiction writers for the new millennium."

"Nelson balances sophisticated plots with deeply human characters whose real flaws and limitations invite our sympathy rather than judgment," said Keya Kraft, assistant professor of English at Samford. Kraft is coordinating the writers series event for Samford.

Samford is one of five participating Birmingham-area higher education institutions. Others are Birmingham-Southern College, Miles College, the University of Montevallo and the University of Alabama-Birmingham. 

Bo Morris is a senior journalism and mass communication major and a news and feature writer in the Office of Marketing and Communication.

PHOTO: Marion Ettlinger

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.