AUGUSTA – The University of Maine at Augusta will hold the Convocation Ceremony on Sept. 20 from 3–5 pm at the Augusta Civic Center, 76 Community Drive.
UMA’s 2024-25 Convocation, the ceremonial beginning of the academic year, will welcome new and returning students, celebrate the institution’s achievements, honor Rising Scholars, include a student and a faculty speaker, and launch this year’s academic theme, Indigeneity. Part of UMA’s academic theme activities includes the adoption of a single theme-related book. This year it is “Night of the Living Rez” by renowned author Morgan Talty who will be delivering the keynote address.
Talty is a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation. He is the author most recently of the debut novel “Fire Exit”, which was recently long-listed for The Center for Fiction’s 2024 First Novel Prize. His debut short story collection “Night of the Living Rez” won the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Sue Kaufman Prize, the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, the New England Book Award, the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Honor, and was a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, and The Story Prize.
His writing has appeared in The Georgia Review, Granta, Shenandoah, TriQuarterly, Narrative, Lit Hub, and elsewhere. Talty is an assistant professor of English in Creative Writing and Native American and Contemporary Literature at the University of Maine and he is on the faculty at the Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing as well as the Institute of American Indian Arts. He lives in Levant.
UMA is proud to welcome Talty to the convocation stage. A limited number of copies of “Night of the Living Rez” and “Fire Exit” will be available for purchase onsite. The public is invited to attend.
UMA transforms the lives of students of every age and background across the State of Maine and beyond through access to high-quality distance and on-site education, excellence in student support, civic engagement, and professional and liberal arts programs. For more information, please visit https://www.uma.edu/.
