Novelist, screenwriter and video game designer Chuck Wendig will be the featured speaker at a public forum Saturday, June 27 during Seton Hill University’s Writing Popular Fiction residency. The presentation, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 7 p.m. in Cecilian Hall on Seton Hill University’s Greensburg, Pa. campus. The event is sponsored by Seton Hill University’s Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction program. For more information, please call 724-830-4600.

Wendig is the author of the published novels Blackbirds, Mockingbird, Under the Empyrean Sky, Blue Blazes, Double Dead, Bait Dog, Dinocalypse Now, Beyond Dinocalypse and Gods & Monsters: Unclean Spirits. He also the author of the soon-to-be-published novels The Cormorant, Blightborn, Dinocalypse Forever, Frack You, and The Hellsblood Bride. He also writes about the art of writing on his blog, terribleminds.com. He is now compiling his writing advice from the blog into a book, which will be published by Writers Digest.

Wendig, along with writing partner Lance Weiler, is an alum of the Sundance Film Festival Screenwriter’s Lab in 2010. Their short film, Pandemic, showed at the Sundance Film Festival 2011, and their feature film, HiM, is in development with producers Ted Hope and Anne Carey. Together they co-wrote the digital transmedia drama Collapsus, which was nominated for an International Digital Emmy and a Games 4 Change award.

Wendig has contributed over two million words to the game industry and was the developer of the popular Hunter: The Vigil game line (White Wolf Game Studios / CCP). He was a frequent contributor to The Escapist, writing about games and pop culture.

Seton Hill’s unique Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction program teaches students to write marketable novels in popular genres like mystery, romance, science fiction, horror, and fantasy. Additional specialties include literature for children and adolescents, and cross-genre blends like romantic suspense or young adult mysteries. Students attend two weeklong, on-campus residencies each year to master the core elements of fiction writing and effective marketing and to gain inspiration from faculty mentors and special guests, all published authors in genre fiction. Established authors mentor students one-on-one as they work toward completing a market-ready manuscript from home. Readings, classes, and on-line discussion about the history, trends, and techniques of genre fiction add depth to the student's experience. For more information about the Master of Arts in Writing Popular Fiction program at Seton Hill, visit http://fiction.setonhill.edu or contact Seton Hill’s Office of Graduate and Adult Studies at 724-838-4209.