Faculty Presentation: Pete Hocking, Deborah Taffa
and Seema Reza
Monday, June 16, 2025
5-7 PM
Join us for a summer faculty artist talk and reading with artist Pete Hocking, and writers Deborah Jackson Taffa, and Seema Reza.
About Our Speakers
Pete Hocking is a painter, teacher & writer on Cape Cod. His work is concerned with nature, place, poetics, and identity. He’s a founding board member of Provincetown Commons, an economic development center for the creative economy. He taught part-time at RI School of Design from 1997- 2022. From 2003-2021 he was full-time faculty in Goddard College’s MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts program. He was director of RISD’s Office of Public Engagement (2007-11), and Associate Dean of the College & Director of the Swearer Center for Public Service at Brown University (1992-2005). On Cape Cod he is represented by AMZehnder Gallery in Wellfleet.
Deborah Jackson Taffa’s debut, Whiskey Tender, a 2024 National Book Award Finalist, has been named on best lists at Esquire, Oprah Daily, ELLE, and The Washington Post. She has received awards and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, PEN America, MacDowell, the Ellen Meloy Foundation, Tin House, the University of Iowa, and the NY Summer Writers Institute. Taffa received her MFA in Iowa City. A citizen of the Kwatsaan Nation and Laguna Pueblo, she is the director of the MFA CW program at the IAIA in Santa Fe, NM.
Seema Reza is the author of the books A Constellation of Half-Lives and When the World Breaks Open. She is the CEO of Community Building Art Works, a non-profit organization that brings workshops led by professional artists to service members, veterans, and clinicians and is featured in the 2018 HBO documentary We Are Not Done Yet. Her writing has been widely anthologized and has appeared in the Washington Post, McSweeney’s, The LA Review, LitHub and Electric Literature among others.
Event Accessibility Information
The Fine Arts Work Center is committed to making its events and services inclusive and accessible for everyone. If you need any accommodations to fully participate, please contact our Accessibility Coordinator, Susan Blood, at 508-487-9960, extension 106.
Both the Stanley Kunitz Common Room and the Hudson D. Walker Gallery meet ADA accessibility standards. If you need help accessing these spaces, please call us at 508-487-9960 ext. 101 before your visit.
With the exception of service animals, pets are not allowed in the Fine Arts Work Center’s indoor public spaces. While we recognize the important role pets play in our lives, our priority is maintaining a safe and inclusive environment for all participants and approved animals. These policies are based on feedback from staff and the community. For more details, please visit our Service and Emotional Support Animal Policy.
Thank You to our Sponsors
This program is supported in part by the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod, Mass Cultural Council, Mass Development, and Provincetown Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
