Marshall Klimasewiski to read for The Writing Program Reading Series Oct. 5

Marshall Klimasewiski, writer-in-residence in The Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, will read from The Cottagers, his debut novel, at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5, for The Writing Program Reading Series.

The reading is free and open to the public and is sponsored by The Writing Program in Arts & Sciences. It takes place in Hurst Lounge, located on the second floor of Duncker Hall, in the northeast corner of Brookings Quadrangle. For more information, call (314) 935-7130.

Published this spring, The Cottagers is part mystery, part psychological examination and part coming-of-age story. Set on a remote stretch of Vancouver Island, it follows the complex and often strained relationship between a pair of vacationing American couples — Brooklynites Nicholas and Samina, and their longtime friends, St. Louisans Greg and Laurel — and Cyrus Coddington, a local teenager and self-styled “genius” who insinuates himself into their lives.

The New York Times named The Cottagers as an “Editor’s Choice,” praising Klimasewiski’s intricate prose and clever plotting and describing Cyrus as “a hybrid of two very different literary loners, Holden Caulfield and Raskolnikov.”

Klimasewiski is also the author of Tyrants, a forthcoming short story collection. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Tri-Quarterly, The Yale Review, Ploughshares, The Missouri Review and elsewhere. They have been included in Best American Short Stories and nominated for a National Magazine Award.

Prior to joining the faculty at Washington University in 1999, Klimasewiski taught at Emory University in Atlanta and the University of Hartford, in Connecticut. He received his M.A. from the writing program at Boston University and his M.F.A. from Bowling Green State University.