The Raymond Carver Reading Series at Syracuse University begins the Fall 2004 semester with a fiction reading by Tobias Wolff on Sept. 22. The reading starts at 5:45 p.m. in Gifford Auditorium, located in Syracuse University's Huntington Beard Crouse Hall, and is free and open to the public.
Wolff, a three-time O. Henry Award winner, is best known for his 1989 memoir "This Boy's Life," which was the basis for the 1993 motion picture of the same name. Widely regarded as a classic tale of American boyhood, the book received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography and the Ambassador Book Award from the English-Speaking Union.
In addition to his many other literary contributions, Wolff published his first novel, "Old School," late last year. His 1984 novella, "The Barracks Thief," earned Wolff the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 1985; his second memoir, "In Pharaoh's Army,"was chosen as a finalist for the National Book Award. He has also been the editor of "Best American Short Stories," "The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories," and "A Doctor's Visit: The Short Stories of Anton Chekhov." His work appears regularly in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, and other magazines and literary journals.
After completing a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University, Wolff served as the Jones Lecturer in Creative Writing at that institution from 1975-78. He then went on to lead the Creative Writing Program at SU from 1980-97. He returned to Stanford in 1997, where he is currently the Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences' Creative Writing Program. Wolff will return to the SU campus on Oct. 7, when he speaks at 4:30 p.m. in
Hendricks Chapel as part of the University Lecture Series.
The Raymond Carver Reading Series is supported by The College of Arts and Sciences, the SU Library Associates, Stephen King, the Dr. Scholl Foundation and The Richard Elman Visiting Writer Fund.
