APPLETON, WIS. — Author Kevin Brockmeier, hailed as one of the most innovative young writers of this generation, will conduct a reading of his fiction Thursday, April 12 at 7 p.m. in the Lawrence University Wriston Art Center auditorium. A reception and book signing will follow the reading. The event is free and open to the public.
A resident of Little Rock, Ark., Brockmeier is the author of both adult (“The Truth About Ceila”) and children’s novels (“City of Names”) and also has written a collection of short stories.
His most recent work, “The Brief History of the Dead” (2006), was honored with an O. Henry Award, one of three he has earned. In the story, Brockmeier explores relationships of people as they pass through life and into the after life through a thought-provoking tale about an isolated wildlife specialist struggling to survive at an Antarctic research station while a deadly pandemic virus spreads across the planet.
For his 2003 collection of short stories, “Things that Fall from the Sky,” Brockmeier drew inspiration from fairy tales and science fiction. The New Yorker called the collection “a curiosity shop, stuffed full of finely made whimsies.” The story “Space” from the collection was selected for The Best American Short Stories.
Brockmeier’s work also has appeared in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, The Georgia Review, The Year’s Best Fantasy, Horror and multiple editions of the O. Henry Prize Stories anthology.
In addition to his three O. Henry Awards, Brockmeier also has been the recipient of the Chicago Tribune’s Nelson Algren Award, an Italo Calvino Short Fiction Award and a James Michener-Paul Engle Fellowship.
He attended the University of Iowa and graduated from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop in 1997.
