Black Mountain Institute, the international literary center based at UNLV, is celebrating 20 years with a slate of high-profile events this fall.
Beginning in September, the institute will welcome the public to free events featuring emerging writers, artists and scholars in conversation around subjects important to Las Vegas.
BMI was founded in 2006 by UNLV President Emerita Carol Harter to bring writers to Las Vegas and cultivate a future generation of writers in Southern Nevada. Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, Layli Long Soldier and Percival Everett have taken part in BMI events.
BMI also publishes Witness, a literary and issue-oriented magazine and Interim, an international literary journal.
The institute’s fellowship program has integrated emerging writers into the local literary community. This year’s lineup of writers in residence includes KB Brookins (“Pretty”), Isle McElroy (“The Atmospherians” and “People Collide”), Muriel Leung (“Bone Confetti,” “Imagine Us” and “How to Fall in Love in a Time of Unnameable Disaster”), and Saretta Morgan (“Alt-Nature,” “Feeling Upon Arrival” and “room for a counter interior”).
This is what BMI has planned for the celebration:
“Thresholds” (live podcast recording) featuring Jayson Greene and Jordan Kisner at The Beverly Theater.
“Love Is Inconvenience: A Conversation” with Maya Salameh and KB Brookins (virtual event)
StraightioLab with special guests at Vegas Theatre Company
“Writing the Personal and the Planetary: A Conversation” with Meera Subramanian and Neal Thompson in partnership with Orion Magazine (virtual event)
“An Evening with Maz Jobrani and Maryam Ala Amjadi” at the Philip J. Cohen Theatre in the UNLV Student Union
“A Conversation with Johanna Hedva and Isle McElroy” (virtual event)
Black Mountain Institute 20th anniversary at the Historic Fifth Street School
For more details, visit blackmountaininstitute.org.