On Sept. 13, Ringling College will welcome Daniel Knauf to campus to share his experiences in the entertainment industry, reveal his best writing/producing lessons, and offer advice for future story makers.
Knauf is an American television screenwriter, producer, and comic book writer who worked as a health insurance broker for 22 years before he sold his first TV show, Carnivàle, to HBO. The show lasted two of its six proposed seasons and earned 15 Emmy nominations, winning five. Following Carnivàle, Knauf produced and wrote on the hit STARZ series Spartacus: Blood and Sand and served as writer-Showrunner on Dracula for NBC. Knauf also served as executive producer and writer on 66 episodes of the NBC hit series The Blacklist (2014-2017) starring James Spader. He has also worked on the Marvel comics Iron Man and Eternals.
Faculty, staff, students, and community members are invited to attend the event which will be held from 7-8 p.m. in the Goldstein Library (room 113) and is free and open to the public.
Knauf is the first of several speakers who will come to campus this fall as part of the Visiting Writers Forum, hosted by the Creative Writing Department at Ringling College. The series is underwritten by a generous grant from the Isermann Family Foundation.
The series is a critical part of the academic program for Creative Writing students at Ringling.
Prior to each forum, students in the Creative Writing program will read samples of each author’s work before attending the reading and talk. Students will also have the opportunity to talk with each author to discover the various blueprints for success as a writer directly from successful, working writers in the field. Visiting professionals include poets, graphic novelists, newspaper editors, literary agents, screenwriters, and novelists.
“Since our major is industry-focused, we make sure to talk about that as well as explore issues of craft with every Visiting Writers Forum guest,” said Dr. Ryan Van Cleave, professor and head of creative writing. “Having an unapologetic focus on the industry is just one of the key differences here. Our goal is to prepare every Creative Writing major to thrive after graduation. Learning about the different career blueprints of the successful writers the series brings in helps our students imagine their own futures more clearly.”
Other speakers this fall include:
Kevin Coval
Sept. 27, 7-8 p.m., Goldstein Library 113
Kevin Coval is an Emmy-nominated, award-winning poet, playwright, author, screenwriter, and editor of more than 10 collections and anthologies including The Breakbeat Poets: New American Poetry in the age of Hip-Hop and A People’s History of Chicago. Coval is a creative consultant and founder of Breakbeat Creatives, a creative agency that helps brands such as Apple, Nike, Adidas, Beats, Gatorade, and more, tell stories, build innovative programming, and connect to local artistic communities in authentic and meaningful ways. His writing has been featured on/in The Daily Show, National Public Radio, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Source Magazine, Slam and WSLAM, Rock the Bells, Sarasota Magazine, CNN.com, and four seasons of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam.
Heather Sellers
Oct. 18, 7-8 p.m., Goldstein Library 113
A Florida native, Heather Sellers, is the author of writing craft books, poetry collections, children’s books, a short story collection, and a memoir, You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know, which was featured in O, the Oprah Magazine, the Today Show, Good Morning America, The Rachael Ray Show, and NPR. Her recent essays appear in The New York Times, Reader’s Digest, Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, The Sun, and O, the Oprah Magazine. Her essay “Haywire” was selected for the Best American Essays by Leslie Jamison and “Pedal, Pedal, Pedal,” won a Pushcart Prize in 2018. She is the director of the undergraduate and MFA creative writing programs at the University of South Florida.
Gloria Muñoz
Nov. 15, 7-8 p.m., Goldstein Library 113
Gloria Muñoz is a Colombian-American writer, translator, and advocate for multilingual literacy and writing. She’s the author of Danzirly/Dawn’s Early, which was selected for the 2019 Ambroggio Prize by Rosa Alcalá. She’s also the recipient of the New York Summer Writer’s Institute Fellowship, a Creative Pinellas Artist Grant, the USF Humanities Institute Poetry Award, and a Think Small to Think Big Artist Grant. Gloria has worked alongside botanists, musicians, dancers, historians, classicists, visual artists, conservationists, and neuroscientists. Muñoz is a co-founder of Pitch Her Productions and she’s one-half of the songwriting team Moonlit Musíca.
Community members attending the event in person should park in a visitor parking space on campus. Registration is not required for those who plan to attend in person. Those who would like to receive event reminders, should sign up online.
Contact:
Laura Neff-Henderson, APR
Director of Marketing and Communications
941-330-7436
