1 Sunday, August 14, 2-5pm Berkeley
$65 members/$75 others
This rare event at The Writing Salon offers you an up-close opportunity to experience the work and ideas of acclaimed writer, Lori Ostlund. Lori will read from her latest fiction and lead discussions about the art of writing fiction, focusing on setting, dialogue, and humor, as well as the interaction of those three in her own work. Lori says, “I am interested in the ways that character and place intersect, particularly when place either shapes or isolates a character. I write a lot about small-town Minnesota, for example, but I also have many stories that are set overseas, and half of my novel is set in San Francisco. I am also interested in the ways that humor is created on the page and through dialogue, as well as the way that dialogue allows ‘power’ shifts between characters to be shown on the page.”
The event will be capped at 15 sign-ups, giving you a chance to engage in intimate and in-depth discussions with Lori about her own writing and the art of fiction. There will be a 15-minute break at the halfway point. Snacks and beverages will be provided.
Lori Ostlund’s novel After the Parade was released by Scribner on September 22, 2015. It was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, was a finalist for the 2016 Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction and the Northern California Book Award for Fiction, and was a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers pick. Her first book, a story collection entitled The Bigness of the World, won the 2008 Flannery O’Connor Award, the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award, and the 2009 California Book Award for First Fiction. Stories from it appeared in the Best American Short Stories and the PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories. Scribner reissued the collection in early 2016.
Lori received the 2009 Rona Jaffe Foundation Award and a fellowship to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Most recently, her work has appeared in ZYZZYVA, The Southern Review, and the Kenyon Review. She is a teacher and lives in San Francisco with Anne Raeff and their two cats, Oscar and Prakash.