FARMINGTON – Merrill Feitell, fiction writer and author of the short story collection, “Here Beneath Low-Flying Planes,” read April 28 to a group of students and writers in UMF’s Thomas Auditorium.

Feitell, who received her master of fine arts in creative writing from Columbia University, was described by Sarah Palmer, senior at UMF, as a writer who works sensitively with “the extraordinary in ordinary characters.”

Born in raised in New York City, Feitell has published in Book Magazine, Glimmer Train and Best New American Voices 2000.

“Love is not hard to find,” Feitell writes in “The Marrying Kind.” “What’s really hard to find are both socks in the morning.”

Feitell answered questions from the audience. Though originally scheduled to read in February, Feitell was happy to make a second trip to Maine. “Maine is my favorite state,” she said.

Feitell took time from her volunteer work with children in New York City to speak at UMF. She is the last of UMF’s Visiting Writers Series speakers, sponsored by the Department of Humanities and the UMF Writer’s Guild.