Aspiring and established writers alike will have an amazing opportunity to hone their craft and travel the globe with a brand new residency program being launched at Stetson University in January 2016.

“We are bringing in amazing instructors and visiting writers for our first master of fine arts residency in January,” explained Mark Powell, associate professor of English and director of the Low-Residency MFA Program at Stetson University. “We are going to amazing places – including the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach and San Miguel de Allende in Mexico – during our first year. And we are approaching American literature in the truest sense: as literature that spans two continents. Our idea is to draw on Florida’s heritage and position as a gateway to Latin America.”

The inaugural residency for this new master of fine art (MFA) program will be held at the esteemed Atlantic Center for the Arts (ACA) from Jan 2 to Jan 12. Founded in the late 1970s, the ACA in known throughout the world for the high caliber of talent and artistry shared at the venerated complex.

World-renowned author and MacArthur Genius Fellow Edwidge Danticat is slated to read on Friday, Jan 8. Danticat has received numerous accolades for her work, including an Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and a Pushcart Short Story Prize.

Reading on Saturday, Jan. 9, is a remarkable young novelist who exploded into the literary world only a couple of years ago. Julia Elliot has won several Pushcart Prizes as well as a Rona Jaffe Writer’s Award.

Stetson faculty member Patricia Engel, a novelist and short story writer from Miami, will be reading on Monday, Jan. 4. Like Elliot, Engel is a young writer who is brings new vibrancy to the literary scene.

Additionally, two well-respected poets will be gracing the 10-day event. Ronaldo Wilson will be presenting a special reading on Tuesday, Jan. 5, and Stetson faculty member Jena Osman will read special selections from her work on Wednesday, Jan. 6.

“Our target audience is anyone who wants to become a better writer,” said Powell. “The program should draw a lot of mid-career professionals, people who want to write as more than just a hobby. So far we have students as young as 24 and some in their 70s.”

All the readings are at 8 p.m., at the ACA, 1414 Art Center Avenue, New Smyrna Beach, Fla., and are free and open to the public.

An undergraduate degree is a prerequisite, along with a love of reading and writing, for this degree. Registration is open for the program which will be capped at 20 participants. Those interested in registering for Stetson University’s Low-Residency MFA Program can learn more at stetson.edu/MFA, or call 1-800-688-0101.

By Trish Wieland