TNRS-Thursday Night Reading Series
Apr 08, 2016 11:20AM ● By News Desk
April marks the 20th anniversary of National Poetry Month. In honor of that, FACE Magazine caught up with S.B. Ferguson, co-host of the Thursday Night Reading Series (TNRS) to find out what it’s all about. Here’s what we learned.
The Thursday Night Reading Series (TNRS) is a creative writing reading series sponsored by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's English Department. It features weekly readings of original works from graduate students and faculty. Readings include poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, plays, and many things in between and outside of standard genre boundaries.
Each year there are two co-hosts that schedule the reading, pick a venue, and make sure everything runs smoothly. This year’s co-hosts are S.B. Ferguson and Jessy Hylton. “The series is run by graduate students and is entirely unfunded, running off of love and a sense of purpose!” explains Ferguson.
With a goal of building a community dedicated to creative expression, TNRS not only showcases the talent UL has, it also strives to build a larger creative community in the Lafayette area. TNRS takes place most Thursdays during the academic year (school breaks and holidays omitted) from 7:15-9pm at Artmosphere Bistro on
Johnston Street. Special alumni guests and undergraduate writers are sometimes given the opportunity to read. The series periodically will host open mic competitions equipped with prizes. A yearly publication is printed out of collected open mic competitions and tabletop stories derived from things written and drawn on the tables during the events; which is funded by making and selling broadsides of our featured writer’s work.
“There's an exceptional amount of talent among the creative writing graduate students and faculty of UL's English Department. TNRS is a new, dynamic experience each week. Everyone is welcome to attend the reading series. It's free and open to the public,” says Ferguson. In honor of National Poetry Month, April 7th will feature three poets. The last event of this series will end with poetry readings on April 28th.
