Blackburn Visiting Fiction Writer Howard Norman
Howard Norman was the Blackburn Visiting Fiction Writer during the week of Feb. 15-21. Norman gave a public reading Thursday Feb. 19th in the Rare Book Room, in which he read from a new (unpublished) work. He also visited creative writing and literature classes, and held a Master Class on Friday. In his introduction to the reading, Prof. Michael Moses said: “I know of no other world like that which Howard Norman’s characters inhabit. The light is different. The shadows seem longer and are not always entirely dependent upon the bodies that cast them. The conversational idiom is loaded with menace and epiphantic possibility. It is a world of weird beauty, sudden violence, erotic complication and mordant humor. It is a place where nature dwells.” Prof. Moses described Howard Norman as “a fabulous conversationalist, a warm and fascinating person, and a magical storyteller.” Norman is the recipient of many awards and honors, including a Lannan Award in fiction, three fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Ingram Merrill Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, and a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Howard Norman is currently Professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park.
A recording of a selection of the reading will be posted as soon as possible.