Author to share ?ction work

Andrea Barrett, a 2003 Pulitzer Prize-nominated author famed for her historical fiction, will give the last public reading as part of the Creative Writing Program’s new Living Writers course today.

“Most of her works are about the past and particularly focus on 19th-century scientists,” said Pam Durban, professor of the course.

“I chose her to show students what’s possible in writing.”

In preparation for Barrett’s visit, the class analyzed the different viewpoints, historical fiction context and the introduction of characters in her short story collection, “Ship Fever: Stories.”

“It would be interesting to see what she has to say about what historical fiction has to offer as opposed to any other genre,” said Kristofer Nilles, a junior English major, who is in the class.

Barrett, a MacArthur Fellow and award winning author, has written six novels, including her latest, “The Air We Breathe.”

The Living Writers course was based on a class taught at Colgate University by the late Frederick Busch.

In the class at UNC, students read the works of four established authors and then interacted with these authors during a class discussion, luncheon and public reading.

Durban was one of the authors who visited and interacted with the students at Colgate.

“I took his idea and modified it for here,” she said of bringing the class to UNC.

Past guest authors for this semester included short story and memoir writer Tobias Wolff, Southern writer Cary Holladay and short-fiction writer Stuart Dybek.

“I wanted to get a variety of writers, not just people who write the same kind of fiction,” Durban said.

Students said it was interesting to be exposed to the different ways authors approached their craft.

“Stuart Dybek said he carries a little notebook with him, called his ‘great thoughts notebook,’ and Pam Durban gave us an assignment to keep track of our own,” Nilles said.

Wolff also shared an anecdote about being inspired to write a story about his childhood after hearing a clock ticking at a parent-teacher conference.

“More than likely, they won’t all inspire stories,” Nilles said about the new ideas he learned. “But some of them might.”



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