Orem Reads 2011:
Gilead
Celebrating the works of Marilynne Robinson
Orem Public Library
58 N. State St.
Selected Author Events Below
(please see the Orem Reads Website for a full schedule of on-site/off-site events)
September 29, Kickoff
7:00 pm
Orem Public Library
Join author Brian Doyle for the kickoff of Orem Reads 2011: Gilead. Doyle’s award-winning essays are frequently anthologized in a wide variety of books, including in numerous Best American Essays and Best Spiritual Writing collections. In an event that will leave the audience inspired and moved, Doyle will explore themes in his own writing related to Marilynne Robinson's masterpiece.
October 12
7:00 pm
Orem Public Library
Barry Lopez has been described as “the nation’s premier nature writer.” Lopez won the National Book Award and Oregon Book Award for Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape. He was also a National Book Award finalist for Of Wolves and Men. Lopez is frequently honored for his work, including an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Lannan Literary Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and two Pushcart Prizes. Lopez will be reading and discussing his work in this special appearance.
October 20
7:00 pm
Orem Public Library
Marilynne Robinson will visit Orem in this year’s Orem Reads finale. Join the Pulitzer Prize-winning author as she talks about her writing and answers questions from the audience. This is a special opportunity to meet the author around whose novel Orem Read 2011: Gilead was designed. Do not miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!
Bios
Brian Doyle is the author of ten books: five collections of essays, two nonfiction books (The Grail, about a year in an Oregon vineyard, and The Wet Engine, about the “muddles & musics of the heart”), two collections of “proems,” most recently Thirsty for the Joy: Australian & American Voices (published in Australia), and the sprawling novel Mink River (Oregon State University Press). A collection of essays (Grace Notes) and of short fiction (Bin Laden’s Bald Spot & Other Stories) will be published in 2011.
Doyle’s books have four times been finalists for the Oregon Book Award, and his essays have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Orion, The American Scholar, and in newspapers and magazines around the world. His essays have also been reprinted in the annual Best American Essays, Best American Science & Nature Writing, and Best American Spiritual Writing anthologies. Among various honors for his work is a Catholic Book Award, two Pushcart Prizes, and a 2008 Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Barry Lopez was born in 1945 in Port Chester, New York. He grew up in Southern California and New York City and attended college in the Midwest before moving to Oregon, where he has lived since 1968. He is an essayist, author, and short-story writer, and has traveled extensively in remote and populated parts of the world.
He is the author of Arctic Dreams, for which he received the National Book Award, Of Wolves and Men, a National Book Award finalist for which he received the John Burroughs and Christopher medals, and eight works of fiction, including Light Action in the Caribbean, Field Notes, and Resistance. His essays are collected in two books, Crossing Open Ground and About This Life. He contributes regularly to Granta, The Georgia Review, Orion, Outside, The Paris Review, Manoa and other publications in the United States and abroad. His work has appeared in dozens of anthologies, including Best American Essays, Best Spiritual Writing, and the “best” collections from National Geographic, Outside, The Georgia Review, The Paris Review, and other periodicals.
Marilynne Robinson is the author of the bestselling novels Housekeeping, Gilead, and Home as well as three collections of nonfiction. Robinson is often honored for her writing. Housekeeping was a finalist for the 1982 Pulitzer Prize and was included in The New York Times Books of the Century as well as listed as one of the 100 greatest novels of all time by the UK Guardian Observer. Gilead was awarded the 2004 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and the 2005 Pulitzer Prize. Home received the 2009 Orange Prize for fiction. In 1997 Robinson received a Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
A talented educator, Robinson has taught at universities throughout the nation such as Amherst, The University of Massachusetts and Yale. She currently teaches at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in Iowa City.