FARMINGTON — The University of Maine at Farmington’s Visiting Writers Series will host a reading with author Jaed Coffin. Coffin will read from his work at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 27, in The Landing in the Olsen Student Center. Sponsored by the UMF Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program, the series events are free and open to the public.

Coffin is the author of “Roughhouse Friday” (FSG), a memoir about the year he won the middleweight title of a barroom boxing show in Juneau, Alaska. According to a starred review by Publishers Weekly, “In measured, lucid prose, Coffin writes of fight night scenes and of the insecurity of angry young men. . .This is a powerful, wonderfully written exploration of one’s sense of manhood.” He’s also the author of “A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants” (Da Capo), which chronicles the summer he spent as a Buddhist monk in his mother’s village in Thailand. A regular contributor to Down East Magazine, Coffin’s essays and stories have appeared in the New York Times, Nautilus, The Sun, and he’s been a storyteller for the Moth Radio Hour and TEDxPortsmouth. He teaches creative writing at the University of New Hampshire and lives in Maine with his wife and two daughters.

As the only Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program in the state of Maine and one of only three in all of New England, the UMF program invites students to work with faculty, who are practicing writers, in workshop-style classes to discover and develop their writing strengths in the genres of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Small classes, an emphasis on individual conferencing, and the development of a writing portfolio allow students to see themselves as artists and refine their writing under the guidance of accomplished and published faculty mentors. Students can pursue internships to gain real-world writing and publishing experience by working on campus with The Beloit Poetry Journal, a distinguished poetry publication since 1950; or Alice James Books, an award-winning poetry publishing house.

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