Bestselling author Tim O’Brien to speak at UVa-Wise Oct. 5

Members of the community are invited to join students, faculty and staff of The University of Virginia’s College at Wise on Friday, Oct. 5, for a presentation by bestselling author Tim O’Brien, who will speak about his book “The Things They Carried.”

The lecture, which will begin at 1 p.m. in the Fred B. Greear Gymnasium, is free and open to the public. A book signing will follow.

“The Things They Carried” was chosen as this year’s shared freshman reading, which is part of the College’s ongoing mission to help new students define their identities while exposing them to other cultures. The shared reading experience serves as a class-building exercise to allow all freshmen to engage in the same learning activity regardless of their major.

O’Brien’s book “The Things They Carried” was named by The New York Times as one of the 10 best books of 1990, received the Chicago Tribune Heartland Award in fiction and was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. The French edition of “The Things They Carried” received the Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger, and the title story was selected by John Updike for The Best American Short Stories of the Century.

O’Brien has been hailed as “the best American writer of his generation” by the San Francisco Chronicle. The author of eight books, he received the National Book Award in Fiction in 1979 for his novel “Going After Cacciato.” 

Time magazine named O’Brien’s novel “In the Lake of the Woods” the best of 1994.  The book also received the James Fenimore Cooper Prize from the Society of American Historians and was selected as one of the 10 best books of the year by the New York Times.

His other books include “If I Die in a Combat Zone,” “Northern Lights,” “Tomcat in Love” and “July, July.” His short fiction has appeared in such journals as The New Yorker, Atlantic, Esquire and Harper’s. O'Brien holds the Roy F. and Joann Cole Mitte Endowed Chair in Creative Writing at Texas State University.

“The Things They Carried” is available in the UVa-Wise campus bookstore.

For more information, contact the Office of College Relations at 276-328-0130.

Posted September 28, 2007