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February 18, 2008
World-renowned author Tobias Wolff to speak at Penn State
University Park, PA— World-renowned author Tobias Wolff, a master of the short story and the memoir, will present "Still with Us: No Farewell to Hemingway," on Thursday, March 6, at 4:30 p.m., in the Foster Auditorium, 101 Pattee Library, Penn State University Park. Wolff's presentation is the 2008 Charles W. Mann Jr. Lecture in the Book Arts funded by the Mary Louise Krumrine Endowment.
Wolff has written four acclaimed books of stories, and three of his individual stories have received the prestigious O. Henry Award. His memoir This Boy’s Life (1989), which tells the story of his difficult adolescence, was made into a major motion picture. His follow-up, In Pharaoh’s Army: Memories of the Lost War (1994), constitutes a memoir of his tour of duty in Vietnam. His novel Old School (2003) focuses on the character of a young writer eager to meet and impress his literary idol, Ernest Hemingway. In his lecture, Wolff will speak about Hemingway's legacy to American literature, for good and for ill.
His collection, Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories, will appear in April, 2008. He has also edited several anthologies, among them Best American Short Stories 1994, A Doctor’s Visit: The Short Stories of Anton Chekhov, and The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories. His work is translated widely and has received numerous awards, including the PEN/Faulkner Award, The Los Angeles Times Book Prize, both the PEN/Malamud and the Rea Award for Excellence in the Short Story, and the Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is the Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor of English at Stanford.
An exhibit, "Hemingway Writing Home," will be on display in the Frank and Mary J. Smeal Foundation Exhibits Hall, 104 Paterno Library, March 6 through May 30, 2008.
The lecture and exhibit are part of Community Read 2008, focusing on Ernest Hemingway's powerful 1929 novel, A Farewell to Arms. The Community Read features a number of Hemingway-related lectures and discussions that will take place throughout March and April. A full listing of events is available at http://www.cals.psu.edu/ The Community Read is sponsored by Penn State's Center for American Literary Studies, in partnership with the English Department, the University Libraries, and the Institute for the Arts and Humanities.
The Wolff lecture and Hemingway exhibit are a First Thursday State College event in the Libraries on March 6. For more information on First Thursday State College go to www.firstthursdaystatecollege.org
For questions, contact The Eberly Family Special Collections Library, 814-865-1793.