Pulaski Technical College: two year community college in central Arkansas

Big Rock Reading Series

The English Department at Pulaski Technical College hosts the Big Rock Reading Series, which invites writers from central Arkansas and beyond to share their work with our students, faculty, staff, and the outside community. All events are free and open to the public. We feature a wide range of genres and host six events per academic year, three in the fall and three in the spring.

Invited writers may be nominated by faculty, staff, or students at Pulaski Tech, or they may be self-nominated. Decisions about which writers will be invited are made within the English Department and in consultation with the Dean of Fine Arts and Humanities. Every effort is made to take into consideration which writers will be the best fit for our student body as well as our general community.

The English Department launched the series in the Fall 2011 semester. Each event begins with a reading by the author(s) and follows up with a question and answer period that allows our audience members to learn about the craft of writing and what goes into the daily life of a writer. For these events, English instructors often bring their students to the reading if their class time overlaps, or they offer extra credit or course projects that encourage attendance. Our most positive feedback has come from our students, demonstrating that the series fills a need on our campus.

For more information, check out our page on Facebook, our blog or contact Sandy Longhorn at slonghorn@pulaskitech.edu or (501) 350-0782.

Pulaski Tech's Big Rock Reading Series featured novelist Padma Viswanathan on Thursday, October 25, 2012. Padma discussed her debut novel The Toss of a Lemon and also discussed her newer work. Her writing covers such diverse topics as the culture of India and Indian immigrants in the West, the consequences of terrorism, and the lives of those who skirt the law.

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