Author Valerie Sayers will give a reading as the 2021 Virginia Butts Sturm writer-in-residence at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 11, in Room 130 of Colson Hall. In addition to her reading, which is free and open to the public, she will work with WVU creative writing students for the week.
Sayers is the author of a collection of stories, “The Age of Infidelity,” and six novels.
Her most recent novel, “The Powers,” explores baseball, pacifism, and 1941 New York in parallel narratives of prose and photography. “Who Do You Love” and “Brain Fever'' were both named New York Times Notable Books of the Year, and a film, "Due East," was based on her novels “Due East” and “How I Got Him Back.” All six of her novels have been reprinted in uniform paperback editions from Northwestern University Press.
Sayers’s stories, essays, and reviews have appeared widely, in such publications as the New York Times, Washington Post, Commonweal, Zoetrope, Ploughshares, Image, Witness and Prairie Schooner, and have been cited in Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays. Her literary prizes include a National Endowment for the Arts literature fellowship and two Pushcart Prizes for fiction. She has been honored with the Kaneb, Sheedy, and Joyce Awards for Excellence in Teaching.
For more information, contact Mark Brazaitis, director of Creative Writing, at mbrazait@wvu.edu.