Fiction writer Jill McCorkle shares short stories from her 2009 collection “Going Away Shoes” Thursday, March 4 at 4:30 p.m. in the Warch Campus Center. The reading is free and open to the public.
Her first short story collection in eight years, “Going Away Shoes” features stories of “women looking love in the face without flinching.” A member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, McCorkle’s Southern heritage often influences her story ideas.
The Lee Smith Professor in Creative Writing at North Carolina State University, McCorkle has written five novels and four collections of short stories. Five of her works have been selected as New York Times Notable Books. Her stories have appeared in numerous publications, including two in the “Best American Short Stories.” Her story “Intervention” is included in latest edition of the “Norton Anthology of Short Fiction.”
She has been recognized with the New England Book Award, the John Dos Passos Prize for Excellence in Literature and the North Carolina Award for Literature. In 1984, at the age of 26, McCorkle made literary history by having her first two novels, “The Cheer Leader” and “July 7th,” published simultaneously.
McCorkle’s characters have come to life with the recent production of “Good ‘Ol Girls,” a musical based on her work and the writing of Lee Smith, McCorkle’s former teacher. The musical was originally staged in 2000, premiered on television in 2009 and came to New York City in February of this year for its off-Broadway premiere.
