College Welcomes Alumnae to Campus for Carlson-Stauffer Visiting Writer’s Series
Events and Lectures

Franklin College will welcome two alumnae, Brooke Lauren Davis ’15 and Samantha Fain ’20, to campus on Tuesday, Nov. 2, as part of the 2021-2022 Carlson-Stauffer Visiting Writer Series. Their lectures and readings, “An Evening with Brooke Lauren Davis and Samantha Fain,” will take place at 7 p.m. in Hamilton Auditorium, located in the B.F. Hamilton Library. Guests may access the auditorium, located on the first floor, through the front entrance to the library. The event is free and open to the public. Please note, masks are required in all indoor spaces on campus regardless of an individual’s vaccination status.

Brooke Davis

Brooke Lauren Davis

Davis is the author of The Hollow Inside (Bloomsbury YA/May 25, 2021), and she never quite knows what to say when asked “Where are you from?” An unruly child in suburban Virginia, a surly teenager in rural Ohio, and a bewildered college student in small-town Indiana, she’s now a hopelessly book-obsessed adult in Louisville, Kentucky. She loves stories of all kinds, from plays to ballets to TV shows to memories rehashed over the dinner table. When she’s not writing, she can usually be found annoying her pets, haunting bookstores or shouting Jeopardy! answers at the TV.

In The Hollow Inside, her debut novel, Davis explores the murkiness of right and wrong, of choices and consequences, of heroes and villains, in an eerily compelling and thought-provoking small-town saga. Seventeen-year-old Phoenix has spent much of her life drifting from town to town with her mom Nina, using their charms to swindle and steal to get by. Now they’ve made it to their ultimate destination, Nina’s hometown of Jasper Hollow. The plan: bring down Ellis Bowman, the man who ruined Nina’s life. But Phoenix soon discovers there’s more to the story. Who, if anyone, is telling the whole truth about what happened?

Samantha Fain

Samantha Fain

Originally from Connersville, Indiana, Fain now lives in Ohio and is an MFA candidate at Bowling Green State University. She honed her writing skills as a creative writing major at Franklin College, where she was inducted into the Sigma Tau Delta English Honorary. Her first chapbook, Coughing Up Planets, debuted with Vegetarian Alcoholic Press in March. Her collection of poems is described as: Orbiting the bodies of dogma, family, identity, sexuality, environment, and outer space, Coughing Up Planets spins the perplexity of existing on this world with vibrant and active symbolism, never abandoning its mission to find reliable meaning beyond the imposing chaos of infinite multiverse.

Fain’s micro chapbook sad horse music made its debut in May with the Daily Drunk. One review states: “The wonder of Samantha Fain’s sad horse music is how it makes the unbelievable, believable. Whether writing a sonnet in the persona of Bojack Horseman, painting portraitures of Sarah Lynn as various location, or comparing churro dust to ashes, Fain convinces you by the end of each poem that this character this moment, is the most important thing in the world.”

Her work has appeared in The Indianapolis Review, SWWIM, and 8 Poems, among others.

“We are thrilled to host Brooke Davis and Sam Fain as our first alumni to appear in the Carlson-Stauffer Reading Series,” said George Phillips, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of English and creative writing. “Brooke is our first graduate with a degree in creative writing and is an excellent writer of pace and suspense. We were all on the edges of our seats when she read an excerpt from her then-unpublished YA (young adult) novel to the English and creative writing department a few years ago. Sam, who many of us still remember fondly, is a poet of uncommon ability. In her poems, ordinary words sound magical. Hearing Sam and Brooke read on the same night will be truly exciting.”

Books will be available onsite for purchase, courtesy of Wild Geese Bookshop. Both Davis and Fain will be available to sign books following their readings.

This series is made possible through a grant from Indiana Humanities in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Humanities.  The series – previously known as the Creative Writing Reading Series – is now named in honor of two retired English professors, Kathy Carlson and Emily Stauffer.

For more information, contact the Franklin College Office of Communications at (317) 738-8185.

 

POSTED Oct 12, 2021