The public is invited to hear the creative-writing professor read from two fiction collections and a play Thursday afternoon.
TOPEKA, Kan. — A Washburn University professor with three recently published books will share his work with readers at a public event Thursday, Sept. 17.
Andrew Farkas, an associate professor of creative writing, will read excerpts at 4 p.m. in Carole Chapel on the Washburn campus. Light refreshments will be served, according to the university’s announcement.
The three books take different routes through questions about identity, memory and the stories people tell themselves.
Are You Now, or Have You Ever Been?: Stories is a fiction collection that plays with how people define who they are. Its characters include an insurance salesman who insists he is Napoleon and a detective searching for someone he cannot describe.
In The Ancient Mysteries of Las Vegas, Farkas turns to theater. The play follows two characters through shifting versions of a Las Vegas journey, leaving readers to question what happened, what was imagined and what might be remembered incorrectly.
His other new collection, Movies Are Fine for a Bright Boy Like You: Fictions, finds stories in the margins of film. Security guards, movie extras and even the people carrying a pane of glass across a street in a chase scene get their turn in the spotlight.
Farkas has taught at Washburn since 2017. He has published four earlier books, along with short stories and essays, and edits the literary journal Always Crashing. In Washburn’s announcement, he described seeking out writing communities even though the work of writing is often done alone. Teaching, he said, helps create that sense of community for students, too.
Thursday’s reading offers Topeka readers a chance to hear how one local writer moves among short fiction, film-inspired stories and theater—and to encounter the work in the voice of the person who wrote it.
Event details: Reading with Andrew Farkas, 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17, at Carole Chapel, Washburn University, Topeka. The public is invited. More information is available from Washburn University
