UALR Professor George H. Jensen Jr., chair of the Department of Rhetoric and Writing, and Frank Thurmond, UALR adjunct professor in English, will analyze their experiences of being abandoned by their fathers at an early age, being raised by their mothers, and then coming to know their fathers as adults, at the Arkansas Literary Festival at noon Friday, April 13, at the Cox Creative Center’s third floor.

Both professors have recently published memoirs of their experiences.

Rhetoric and Writing graduate students Amy Manning Burns and Loria Taylor will join Nickole Brown, assistant professor of English, to read from their works at “Pub or Perish” at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 14, at Lulav restaurant. Manning Burns is also the director of marketing for the UALR College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

Sara Mitchell, also a Rhetoric and Writing graduate student, will read “Telling Tales” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 17, at “Tales From the South” at the Starving Artist Cafe in North Little Rock.