Joy Williams, the visiting Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in Washington University’s Department of English in Arts & Sciences, will give a talk on the craft of fiction at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 15, in Hurst Lounge, Duncker Hall, Room 201.
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WHO: Fiction Writer Joy Williams WHAT: Talk on the craft of fiction WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursday, April 15 WHERE: Hurst Lounge, Room 201 Duncker Hall, northwest corner of Brookings Quadrangle, near the intersection of Hoyt and Brookings Drive COST: free and open to the public INFORMATION: (314) 935-7130 |
The talk, which is free and open to the public, is part of the Spring Reading Series 2004, sponsored by The Department of English and The Writing Program in Arts & Sciences. A reception and book signing will follow, and copies of Williams’ books will be available for purchase. Duncker Hall is located on the north-western side of Brookings Quadrangle, near the intersection of Hoyt and Brookings drives. For more information, call (314) 935-7130.
Williams is the author of two collections of stories, Escapes and Taking Care, and four novels, most recently The Quick and the Dead. Other novels include State of Grace and The Changeling. She has also published Ill Nature, a collection of essays, and the nonfiction book The Florida Keys: A History and Guide.
Fiction writer Marshall Klimasewiski, assistant professor of English, says of Williams’ work: “Who else has glowing blurbs on her books from writers as different from one another as Raymond Carver, Brett Easton Ellis, Ann Beattie, Don DeLillo, and Truman Capote? In 1973, with her very first novel, George Plimpton was saying she ‘towers over most contemporary fiction’; in 1988 Harold Brodkey said, ‘To put it simply, Joy Williams is the most gifted writer of her generation’; and in 2000 William Gass said, ‘Joy Williams is now the best at her business.’ She’s an amazing writer, one sentence to the next and one book to the next, and a consummate artist, entirely unique–and she has been for the last 30 years.”
Williams’ stories and essays appear frequently in such publications as The Paris Review and The New Yorker. Her honors include the Academy-Institute Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a National Magazine Award for Fiction and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation.