Marlon James, assistant professor of English at Macalester College, will present a free reading at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 25, in the Frank Conroy Reading Room of the Glenn Schaeffer Library, adjacent to the Dey House.

James was born in Kingston, Jamaica. His second novel, The Book of Night Women, won the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the Minnesota Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction, and an NAACP Image Award. He was also Go On Girl Book Club’s author of the year. His first novel, John Crow’s Devil, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize, and was a New York Times Editor’s Choice.

James graduated from the University of the West Indies in 1991 with a degree in language and literature, and from Wilkes University in 2006 with a master’s in creative writing. His short fiction has appeared in Esquire, Kingston Noir, and Silent Voices, and his nonfiction has appeared in Granta, Publisher’s Weekly, and The Caribbean Review of Books.

In his third novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings, James is exploring multiple genres: the political thriller, the oral biography, and the classic whodunit to confront the untold history of Jamaica in the late 1970s; of the assassination attempt on Bob Marley, and the country’s own clandestine battles of the cold war.

The Iowa Writers’ Workshop is a graduate program in the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all UI-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to attend this reading, call the Writers' Workshop in advance at 319-335-0416.

For a UI arts calendar and details about upcoming events visit the Arts Iowa website.