04-05-07

Media Release

Critically Acclaimed Oregon Author Comes to OSU

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Two-time Oregon Book Award winner Gina Ochsner comes to Oregon State University on Wednesday, April 11, to read from her most recent short story collection, “People I Wanted to Be,” and to share her experiences, insights and vision.

The event, hosted by the Craft of Writing Series, begins at 5 p.m. in the first floor rotunda of the Valley Library.

Ochsner is an Oregon native who has won more than 20 literary awards, including the William Faulkner Award, the Raymond Carver Prize, the Chelsea Award for Short Fiction and the PNBA Book Award. Her stories have appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, The Best American Non-Required Reading and Prairie Schooner. Ochsner’s first collection, “The Necessary Grace to Fall,” won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction and was a Top Ten Pick of the Austin Chronicle.

Ochsner’s latest collection of short stories is set mostly in Russia and Oregon and weaves Slavic fatalism with Northwestern unflappability.

Publishers Weekly wrote of the collection: “Ochsner assembles a host of oddballs whose touchingly resilient hopes and small leaps of faith fly in the face of almost certain disappointment. Ochsner knows that vindication and inspiration often come from unlikely places, and she can capture this contradiction gorgeously in a gesture.”

This event is sponsored by the Craft of Writing Series, the Valley Library and the Center for Writing and Learning. It is free and open to the public.