Thirty-five years after leaving Philadelphia with a theater degree and setting out on the journey that would eventually become Huckleberry Jim , author Adam Nelson is coming back to where it began.

On October 21, Nelson returns to the former grounds of his alma mater, the University of the Arts, for a special celebration at The Village of Industry & Art on S. Broad Street.

Nelson graduated from UArts in 1991—the same year in which Huckleberry Jim is set. The people he encountered there and the creative life he discovered in Philadelphia became part of the personal history from which the novel would eventually emerge.

“There is a beautiful circularity to this,” said Nelson. “Thirty-five years later, I’m coming back with the book. The University may no longer exist as we knew it, but the ground is still here. The history is still here. And, wonderfully, artists are here again."

The evening will feature conversation, reading, audience Q&A and book signing