Every last Thursday of the month during the academic year, Professor Jim O’Loughlin hosts the Final Thursday Reading Series (FRTS) and open mic in the Hearst Center for the Arts, located just a few blocks from campus on Seerley Blvd. This month, O’Loughlin is continuing the 19-year tradition as planned with special guest Andrew Farkas. The venue, however, will look a bit different this time.

“For 19 years, the Final Thursday Reading Series has happened on the last Thursday of each month in Cedar Falls without fail,” O’Loughlin wrote in an announcement email. “Through illnesses, snowstorms and last minute changes, we’ve never missed a month. And though the current COVID-19 outbreak makes a physical event impossible, FRTS will be going online.”

On Thursday, March 26, the original date for this month’s reading, O’Loughlin will be uploading a video reading by novelist Andrew Farkas to the FTRS website, www.finalthursdaypress.com.

“And since it wouldn’t be FTRS without the open mic, you are invited to contribute a video of you reading under five (5) minutes of your own creative work,” the website states.

Participants in the digital open mic were asked to upload their video to YouTube or another publicly accessible video website and send the link to O’Loughlin’s university email ([email protected]) by Wednesday, March 25. These videos will then be shared on the FTRS website on Thursday.

An interview with Andrew Farkas in anticipation of his FTRS appearance conducted by Alyssa Minch, a graduate assistant for UNI’s Languages & Literatures department, can be read on www.finalthursdaypress.com.