Author Jim Shepard to read, discuss his work at ASU
Nov. 4, 2010
1:30 p.m., 7:45 p.m.
Jim Shepard, a novelist and short-story writer who is known for his darkly humorous tales and work that explores the pain of male adolescence, will discuss his work during a Public Craft Q&A at 1:30 p.m., Nov. 4 at the Piper Writers House on Arizona State University’s Tempe campus.
Shepard then will read and sign books at 7:45 p.m., also on Nov. 4, in Recital Hall in the Music Building on the Tempe campus. Both events are free.
Shepard is the author of six novels, including most recently “Project X,” and four story collections, including the forthcoming “You Think That’s Bad” (Knopf, March 2011).
His third collection, “Like You’d Understand, Anyway,” was a finalist for the 2007 National Book Award and won The Story Prize. “Project X,” about the trying life of junior-high-age Edwin Hanratty, won the 2005 Library of Congress/Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction, as well as the ALEX Award from the American Library Association.
His short fiction has appeared in, among other magazines, Harper’s, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, DoubleTake, The New Yorker, Granta, Zoetrope: All-Story, and Playboy, and he was a columnist on film for the magazine The Believer.
Four of his stories have been chosen for the Best American Short Stories, and one for a Pushcart Prize. He’s won an Artists’ Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
A native of Bridgeport, Conn., Shepard received his undergraduate degree from Trinity College and his M.F.A. from Brown University. He teaches at Williams College and in the Warren Wilson MFA program. His wife Karen Shepard is also a novelist. They live in Williamstown, Mass. with their three children, and two beagles.
For more information about the event, which is part of the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series, call the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at (480) 965-6018, or go to: http://www.asu.edu/piper/visitingwriters/index.html .
Media Contacts:
Tom McDermott, thomas.m.mcdermott@asu.edu
(480) 727-0818
Judith Smith, jps@asu.edu
(480) 965-4821