11-02-07

Media Release

Author to Read from Memoir on Childhood in Corvallis

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Janna Malamud Smith will give a reading from her memoir, “My Father is a Book,” on Friday, Nov. 9, as part of the Visiting Writer’s Series at Oregon State University.

Malamud Smith is the daughter of Bernard Malamud, who taught at OSU in the 1950s and ’60s and won a Pulitzer Price and a National Book Award. Her memoir details Malamud Smith’s childhood in Corvallis and memories of her father.

She is now a writer and psychotherapist, and the author of three books, “Private Matters: In Defense of the Personal Life,” which The New York Times called a “gorgeously written . . . cultural history,” “A Potent Spell: Mother Love and the Power of Fear,” and her memoir, “My Father is a Book.”

She will appear at an informal talk and question-and-answer session at 2 p.m. in the Corvallis-Benton County Library main meeting room, 645 N.W. Monroe Ave. Then Malamud Smith will give a formal reading and a talk in the main rotunda of the Valley Library on the OSU campus at 7:30 p.m.

Both events are free and open to the public.

The reading is sponsored by the OSU Visiting Writers Series through the OSU English Department, The Valley Library, The Office of the Provost, and Friends of the Benton-Corvallis Country Library.