Author Kevin Brockmeier to give a reading at Ouachita March 9
February 27, 2015 - Taylor Black
Ouachita Baptist University will host award-winning author Kevin Brockmeier at a reading
on Monday, March 9, at 7:30 p.m. The event will be held in Hickingbotham Hall’s Young
Auditorium on Ouachita’s campus and is free and open to the public.
“Come hear a great storyteller who uses science fiction but realistic daily life to
basically make you feel sad and glad to be alive,” said Dr. Doug Sonheim, chair of
OBU’s Department of Language and Literature. “You’re going to feel sad if you enter
into these stories, but you’re also going to feel glad, and if that doesn’t strike
you as interesting, then don’t come. However, if you think you’re going to be interested
in that, then come, because he’s going to work his magic.”
“One night I heard him read, and I just fell in love with his work right then and
there,” said event coordinator Dr. Johnny Wink, OBU’s Betty Burton Peck Professor
of English. “It was sort of love at first sound for me; he's got a hauntingly beautiful
voice that he reads in. ”
Brockmeier, whose work ranges from adult fiction (both novels and short stories) to
children’s novels, has been called one of “America’s best practitioners of fabulist
fiction.” His most recent release, A Few Seconds of Radiant Filmstrip: A Memoir of
Seventh Grade (2014, Random House), is his first work of nonfiction. It reflects on
his experiences growing up in Little Rock.
Brockmeier has received the Porter Fund Award for Literacy and the Worthen Prize,
Arkansas’ top literary recognitions, as well as numerous national honors, including
three O. Henry Awards, the Borders Original Voices Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
His work has been published in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, The Oxford American, The
Best American Short Stories and more.
A 1991 graduate of Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School in Little Rock, Brockmeier
earned a bachelor’s degree in creative writing, philosophy and theater from Southwest
Missouri State University (now Missouri State University). He earned his Master of
Fine Arts degree from the prestigious Iowa Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa,
where he also returned to teach as a visiting instructor. He also has served as an
instructor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Pulaski Technical College.
During the day, Brockmeier also will speak in Dr. Jay Curlin’s English Studies class
and Dr. Johnny Wink’s Creative Writing class. A selection of Brockmeier's books are
available for purchase at the OBU Bookstore leading up to the event and also will
be available after the reading for a brief signing opportunity.
For more information, contact Dr. Johnny Wink at [email protected] or (870) 245-5556.
By Taylor Black // Photo by Benjamin Krain
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