events

11/20/04

Gary Fincke to read at Marshall University

Huntington, WV—Author Gary Fincke will visit Marshall University to read from his diverse selection of poetry and short stories on Wednesday, October 20, at 8 p.m. in the Memorial Student Center, Room 2W22.

Fincke will be the second appearance for the Marshall University Visiting Writers Series 2004.

Fincke said he plans to read a story and a few poems as well as talk about his rock 'n' roll book called Amp'd , a nonfiction book about his son, a guitarist, facing the ups and downs of national stardom.

Fincke is a professor at Susquehanna University, where he teaches English and creative writing and is also the director of the school's Writers Institute. He said his profession as a teacher came before his writing.

"I came to writing late," Fincke said. "I was nearly 30 and had a Ph.D. before I began to write, but I knew right away I wanted to make the literature rather than write about it in a scholarly way."

"It's formed my professional life a lot more than my education in the classroom has," he added.

Fincke's most recent collection of short stories, Sorry I Worried You , won the Flannery O'Connor Award, which Fincke said is his most valuable award.

"The O'Connor Award came as a genuine surprise," Fincke said. "It signified that I had reached a significant level of recognition."

Writing Letters for the Blind is his seventh poetry collection and won the Ohio State University Press award in poetry.

Fincke also wrote Blood Ties: Working-Class Poems , a collection of poems inspired by his background. "I come from a blue-collar background," Fincke said. "My parents were uneducated, so I feel an affinity for working-class people who are trying to make it."

Fincke has won the George Garrett Fiction Prize and multiple Pushcart Prizes; his nonfiction also appears frequently in the annual Best American Essays .

Fincke also writes a bi-weekly newspaper column distributed by Scripps-Howard, reprints of which have been published in dozens of other newspapers throughout the United States and Canada.

Fincke's reading on October 20 will start at 8 p.m. in the MSC, Room 2W22, and will be open to the public.