NEWS RELEASE
Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu)
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466
http://www.nsula.edu/news
6/8/2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATCHITOCHES – The Northwestern State University Writing Project and the Department of Language and Communication will host a reading by North Carolina author Ron Rash Monday, June 18 at 6:30 p.m. in the Second Floor Faculty-Student Reading Room of Watson Library. The public is invited to attend.
Rash, the Parrish Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Cultural Studies at Western Carolina University, is the author of four novels and several collections of short stories and poems. He will read from his latest novel, “The World Made Straight.”
Tickets are $12 for both the reading and dinner that will follow or $5 for the reading. Reservations for the dinner should be made by Thursday, June 14 by calling (318) 357-5339. Tickets for the reading will be available at the door.
His short story “Speckle Trout” won the 2005 O. Henry Prize, one of the most coveted awards for short fiction. Other awards include the Weatherford Award for Fiction (2005), Foreword Magazine’s Gold Medal for Best Literary Novel (2002), and a writing fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts (2006).
According to Rash, many of his novels are inspired by a single image. For “Saints at the River,” he drew from the image of child’s face looking up through the water. For “One Foot in Eden,” he was inspired by the thought of a farmer standing in his field with his crops dying around him. Often the image first takes shape in a poem and later becomes a novel when the image won’t let go of his imagination.
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