On Monday, October 2nd, novelists Michael Shou-Yung Shum and Jesse Goolsby will read at the University of Tennessee. The event is part of UT’s Writers in the Library reading series.

Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Michael Shou-Yung Shum eventually found himself dealing poker in a dead-end casino in Lake Stevens, Washington. Two doctorates bookend this turn of events: the first in Psychology from Northwestern, and the second in English from University of Tennessee. Along the way, Michael spent a dozen years in Chicago, touring the country as a rave DJ. He currently resides in Astoria, Queens, with Jaclyn Watterson and three cats. Queen of Spades (Forest Avenue Press) is his first novel.

Jesse Goolsby is the author of the novel I’d Walk with My Friends If I Could Find Them (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). His fiction and essays have appeared in places like EPOCH, The Kenyon Review, Narrative Magazine and Salon. He is the recipient of the Richard Bausch Short Story Prize and the John Gardner Memorial Award in Fiction, among other honors. A US Air Force officer, Goolsby holds a Masters in English from the University of Tennessee and a PhD in Creative Writing from Florida State University.

The reading begins at 7 p.m. in the Lindsay Young Auditorium of the John C. Hodges Library. The event is free and open to the public; all are encouraged to attend.

A brown bag Q&A, open to University of Tennessee students, will be held at noon in 1210 McClung Tower.

The mission of Writers in the Library is to “showcase the work of novelists, poets, and other literary craftsmen.” Some of the best voices in contemporary literature are invited to read. The series is sponsored by the UT Libraries and the Creative Writing Program in association with the John C. Hodges Better English Fund.

For more information, contact Erin Elizabeth Smith, Jack E. Reese Writer-in-Residence at the UT Libraries, at esmith83@utk.edu or visit http://library.utk.edu/writers for a complete schedule of Writers in the Library readings for the 2017-2018 academic year.

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