Pulitzer Prize finalist Bobbie Ann Mason will lead off UT’s Writers in the Library fall series next month.
Mason will read from her works at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, September 12, in the John C. Hodges Library auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
Nine other writers will read from their works during the fall semester. For the complete list, visit the library’s website.
“As a novelist who teaches writing and literature, I know that experiencing literature can be life-enhancing,” said Allen Wier, a UT professor of English who arranged Mason’s visit. “The opportunity to be present when a writer reads from his or her work reminds us of how essential the art of storytelling is, and has been in almost all cultures since the emergence of speech.”
Mason, a Kentucky native, is the author of five short story collections, five novels, a memoir, and three works of nonfiction. Her first book of fiction, Shiloh and Other Stories, won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was nominated for the American Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Her memoir, Clear Springs, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the top award in the field of journalism. Mason also has received an Arts and Letters Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
The New York Times has praised Mason’s books for having “delineated a New South reeling from the dislocations of contemporary life” and for her “radar-sharp knowledge of her characters’ inner lives, (and) her interest in the longings for emotional connection.”
Mason’s most recent novel, The Girl in the Blue Beret, was one of last summer’s three “hot literary books” recommended by USA Today.
Writers in the Library is sponsored by UT Libraries and the UT Creative Writing Program in association with the John C. Hodges Better English Fund.
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CONTACTS:
Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lola.alapo@tennessee.edu)
Martha Rudolph (865-974-4273, mrudolp2@utk.edu)