PRESS RELEASE
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS
COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS AND COMMUNICATION
CONTACT: Garry Craig Powell, (501) 450-3338; gpowell@uca.edu
February 12, 2013
PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR JENNIFER EGAN TO BE IN RESIDENCE FEB. 26-27
By Dannielle Douglas
College of Fine Arts and Communication Media Office
CONWAY — Jennifer Egan, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of novels and short stories, will be at the University of Central Arkansas as artist in residence Feb. 26-27.
Garry Craig Powell, associate professor of writing and the faculty sponsor for the residency, called Egan a “true A-list author” whom the students at UCA would greatly benefit from hearing.
“Her visit will also help establish the reputation of UCA’s Creative Writing program,” Powell said.
In the future, he predicted, Egan’s work will be considered among the classics.
On Tuesday, Feb. 26, Egan will give a public reading and book signing beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the College of Business Auditorium, room 107. On Wednesday, Feb. 27 at 10 a.m., she will give a creative writing craft talk and Q&A in Thompson Hall 331. All events of the residency are free and open to the public.
With her innovative style, Egan is one of the most successful exponents of literary fiction alive, Powell said.
Her books include A Visit from the Goon Squad, The Invisible Circus, Look at Me and The Keep. A Visit from the Goon Squad, an international best-seller, won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the National Book Critics’ Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award. The Keep, published in 2006, was a New York Times bestseller, and her 2001 novel, Look at Me, was nominated for the National Book Award and became a feature film starring Cameron Diaz. Egan’s first novel, The Invisible Circus, was published in 1995 and was also made into a film.
Egan’s short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Granta, McSweeney’s, and Zoetrope: All-Story. Her journalism regularly appears in The New York Times Magazine.
“Egan’s fiction is noted for its technical virtuosity, its employment of non-linear, polyphonic narratives, but also for its avoidance of self-conscious postmodern gimmickry,” Powell said. “Her characters remain starkly real, and her stories are deeply moving.”
The Artist in Residence program is funded by UCA’s arts fee and is administered by the College of Fine Arts and Communication. For more information, call the Office of the Dean, College of Fine Arts and Communication, at (501) 450-3293 or e-mail jdmiller@uca.edu.
For more information, contact Powell at (501) 450-3338 or gpowell@uca.edu.
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