RILING UP THE WRITERS: Back in August, Jerome reported on how the University of North Texas planned to expand its creative writing program by spending more money on writers and poets. It’s a little early to tell how the efforts are paying off, but if the school needs more motivation, it can be found in being left off Poets & Writers magazine’s list of the top creative writing programs. If the folks at UNT are upset, they aren’t alone – The Guardian reports that the list has quite a few feathers ruffled.

MODERN AT THE MODERN: On Sept. 29, Modern Cinema: Great Movies You Haven’t Heard of … Yet unspools again at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The film festival is usually a great way to get a leg up on some of the important movies you’ll be hearing around into the fall and winter. The event is curated by Star-Telegram film critic Chris Kelly, who offers a video preview of this year’s lineup. If the rest of the movies are as good as opening night’s 50/50, you’re in for a treat.

TO BROADWAY AND BACK: Hunter Ryan Herdlicka is making his Dallas professional acting debut as Ariel in the Dallas Theater Center’s The Tempest. But this isn’t a case of a local guy having a bone thrown to him by one of the area’s big theater companies. Instead, the Plano West graduate is actually returning to North Texas from a stint on Broadway performing in the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music. He talks about that experience in a theaterjones.com video interview.