The University of Miami’s Creative Writing Program welcomes award-winning author Peter Selgin February 13-17 for a week of new beginnings. Selgin, author of the “Your First Page” blog and 179 Ways to Save a Novel: Matters of Vital Concern to Fiction Writers, is a renowned editor of opening sentences, paragraphs, and pages. Join the Creative Writing Program as Selgin reads at Books and Books, conducts one-on-one manuscript consultations for senior creative writing students, and hosts the seminar “In the Beginnings” to discuss manuscript openings. Please visit http://www.as.miami.edu/english/creativewriting/writerinresidence for details.

For more information, please contact M. Evelina Galang, director of the Creative Writing Program, at [email protected] or Jen Mehan at [email protected].

The Norton Herrick Center for Motion Picture Studies at the University of Miami School of Communication presents a special lecture on forgotten and controversial films with film historian Eric Schaefer, author of “Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!” A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959, on Thursday, February 16 at 7:30 p.m. at Bill Cosford Cinema. The discussion is free and open to the public.

The event features a rare look at low-budget films from the 1930s to the 1960s, including examples from the Norton Herrick Collection such as Ed Wood’s Glen or Glenda, The Black King, Murder on Lenox Avenue, The Lonely Sex, and The Defilers.

Refreshments will be served at 6:30 p.m. A Q&A will follow the lecture.

Surgical grand rounds will be held on Thursday, February 16 from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, fifth-floor auditorium. Mauricio Lynn, professor of surgery, medical director of the Center for Bloodless Medicine and Surgery, and director of mass casualty preparedness and response in the Division of Trauma and Critical Care at the Miller School of Medicine, will present “Impact of Military Medicine on Modern Trauma Care.” The lecture will discuss the advances in military trauma care and medical techniques on current trauma algorithms.

This educational activity is approved for one AMA PRA Category 1 Credit. For more information, please contact Elisa Argüelles at 305-585-1280 or [email protected].

The College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Art and Art History presents the solo exhibition Legerdemain, by photographer Jeffrey Stern, on view February 6 to 24 at Wynwood Project Space, 2200-A N.W. Second Avenue, Miami. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, February 11.

The exhibition features recent work that explores an unseen view of the interaction of people, their environment, and the interplay of light. Through a series of 40 photographs, Stern has captured views of everyday life that we all pass by, unaware of their existence.

For more information about the exhibition or Wynwood Project Space, call 305-284-2543 or email [email protected]. For a full schedule of exhibitions, visit www.as.miami.edu/art.

The Department of Theatre Arts 2011-2012 season resumes with Stage Door, which will run February 15-25 at the Jerry Herman Ring Theatre.

Stage Door is a witty and stylish 1937 American comedy centering around a group of aspiring actresses crammed into a theatrical boarding house in Manhattan while awaiting their big break on Broadway’s Great White Way. Stage Door showcases love affairs, betrayals, snappy wisecracks, rejections, drama, despair, and plenty of delicious comedy. The central plot focuses on Terry Randall (Katherine Hepburn in the 1937 film), a stage-struck actress totally driven by her talent and ambition who refuses to be enticed by the money and glamour of the movies. What the other young residents of the boarding house bring to the play is a veritable carnival of memorably eccentric characters. Stage Door is a genuine valentine to the theatre as well as a comic send-up of the Hollywood film industry. The Jerry Herman Ring Theatre production features talented theatre students performing in glamorous period costumes and scenery.

Tickets go on sale Monday, February 6 at noon. Prices: weeknights and matinee general admission $18; seniors and UM faculty, staff, and alumni $16; students $10. Friday and Saturday nights general admission $20; seniors and UM faculty, staff, and alumni $20; students $12. For more information visit www.as.miami.edu/theatrearts/ring.html.