News Detail

Winner of top literary prize to read fiction

Visiting writer Michael Thomas

10/27/2009

I see his face. He's a child, then he's not, at least not in his face: It's wiped clear - no chocolate, no jam smears, no innocence. Then the child returns, which is worse, because that face can't absorb the horror of the fire across the river.

~ from "Man Gone Down" by novelist Michael Thomas

Pittsburg State University will welcome an author next week whose novel on post-9/11 aggression, greed and racism has earned one of the most coveted literary prizes in the world.

Michael Thomas, author of New York Times Notable Book "Man Gone Down" and winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, will read fiction as PSU's next Distinguished Visiting Author. His reading will be held at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 5, in Grubbs Hall 109.

In June, Thomas was awarded the prestigious IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, one of the world's most lucrative literary prizes. His novel was selected from 145 books - only four of which were from the United States - nominated by libraries around the world. According to the New York Times, the IMPAC Dublin Award is often described as the "largest and most international" literary prize in the world after the Nobel Peace Prize.

In an excerpt from "Man Gone Down," Thomas writes of Sept. 11, 2001: "C's on his bunk, looking out the window. I see his face. He's a child, then he's not, at least not in his face: It's wiped clear - no chocolate, no jam smears, no innocence. Then the child returns, which is worse, because that face can't absorb the horror of the fire across the river."

Thomas received his MFA from Warren Wilson College and is currently an English professor at Hunter College in Manhattan.

In a Booklist-starred review of "Man Gone Down," Donna Seaman wrote "Thomas has written a rhapsodic and piercing post-9/11 lament over aggression, greed, and racism, and a ravishing blues for the soul's unending loneliness."

Novelist Karen Stolz, a creative writing and literature professor at PSU, said the English department is thrilled Thomas agreed to travel to Kansas to speak to literature fans: "Our creative writing students are really looking forward to this event."

The free reading is sponsored by the Distinguished Visiting Writer Series and the Student Fee Council. A reception will follow the event.

---Pitt State---

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