MFA Alumni Are Big Men, and Women, on Campus

What do Sande Boritz Berger, Maggie Bloomfield, Genevieve Sly Crane, Nora Decter, Joanne Pateman and Allen Retzky all have in common?

They are all published authors. They are all alumni of the MFA in Creative Writing and Literature program at Stony Brook Southampton. And they will all return to campus on Wednesday, October 24, as part of the fall Writers Speak Wednesdays line-up — a series of free author talks and readings in the Duke Lecture Hall on the ground floor of Chancellors Hall, located at 39 Tuckahoe Road in Southampton.

Berger’s debut novel, “The Sweetness,” was published in 2014 by She Writes Press and her new novel, “Split-Level,” will be published in May 2019. Bloomfield’s poetry and essays have been published in “TSR: The Southampton Review,” “Oberon” and other journals, and she won an Emmy as lyricist for “Sesame Street.”

Crane’s first novel, “Sorority,” was published in May by the Gallery/Scout imprint of Simon & Schuster, and Decter is the author of the young adult novel “How Far We Go and How Fast.” Pateman writes the “Reflections” column in The Southampton Press and contributes to Edible East End when she isn’t working on a memoir about her adoption. Retzky’s debut novel, “Vanished in the Dunes,” was an Amazon best seller and Oceanview Publishing plans to reissue the novel in paperback next summer.

Looking ahead, Writers Speak will continue with Jonathan Santlofer on November 7, Alison Fairbrother and Alexandra Scholldorf on November 28, and Lloyd Schwartz on December 5. Each program begins with a reception at 6:30 p.m., followed by a reading at 7 p.m. and, after, a Q&A and book signing.

Admission is free. For more information, call (631) 632-5030 or visit stonybrook.edu/mfa.