FARMINGTON —The University of Maine at Farmington and Maine’s only bachelor of fine arts in creative writing program, will present award-winning fiction writer Brock Clarke as the next reader in UMF’s notable Visiting Writers Series. Free and open to the public, the reading will be held at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 26, in The Landing in the UMF Olsen Student Center, followed by a signing by the author.

The author of six books of fiction, Clarke, who lives in Portland,  “has a distinctively winning style,” according to the New York Times, and “imagines characters so careful in their reasoning that they are deeply, maddeningly unreasonable but also tenderly hapless at the same time.”

In addition to receiving many enthusiastic reviews, his 2014 novel, “The Happiest People in the World,” was named New York Times Book Review’s “Editors’ Choice” , Wired.com’s “Best Book of November” and Amazon “Book of the Month.”

His 2010 novel, “Exley,” was named a Kirkus “Book of the Year,” Daily Beast’s “Top Ten Novel of the Fall,” a finalist for the Maine Book Award, and a longlist finalist for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. “An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England,” published in 2007, was a national bestseller, American Library Associate “Notable Book of the Year,”  among other notable honors. 

Clark teaches creative writing at Bowdoin College and in University of Tampa’s low residency MFA program.