The Chattanooga State Humanities Department’s Writers@Work program will welcome Pulitzer Prize-finalist Karen Russell to Chattanooga for a week-long celebration of her short story collection Orange World, March 29-31.
The Writers@Work series celebrates Southern literature by integrating the work of selected authors into the curriculum of the Department's Composition Two course. Each year, the nearly 1,000 students enrolled in Composition Two engage in activities focused around a specific work while practicing critical course skills. Every spring, the W@W featured author comes to Chattanooga to share his or her work and writing experience with the faculty, staff, and students of Chattanooga State and the public.
Past W@W authors include an impressive lineup of nationally-recognized and best-selling Southern authors, including Terry Kay, Jill McCorkle, Lila Quintero Weaver, Rick Bragg, George Singleton, Ron Rash, Robert Morgan, Tayari Jones, Tom Franklin, Beth Ann Fennelly, Daniel Wallace, and Chattanooga’s own Ishmael Reed. In addition, the most-recent W@W author, Jericho Brown, won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for his poetry collection, The Tradition.
This year’s Writers@Work installment features Karen Russell and her short story collection Orange World and Other Stories.
In a review of Mr. Russell’s collection, The Washington Post describes Ms. Russell’s work as “the must-read short-story collection of the summer,” stating that “Russell’s ease with her material, her sheer glee on the page, shines through in each piece.” NPR writes that Russell’s work is “brilliant” and “stunning,” and that “her imagination is boundless.” In a review of Orange World, The Wall Street Journal writes that it is a “superb collection,” “a masterpiece,” and contains “a horror [that] always cohabits with humor…”
Ms. Russell, a native of Miami, won the 2012 and 2018 National Magazine Award for fiction, and her first novel, Swamplandia!, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2011. She has received a MacArthur Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship, the “5 under 35” prize from the National Book Foundation, the NYPL Young Lions Award, the Bard Fiction Prize, and is a former fellow of the Cullman Center and the American Academy in Berlin. Ms. Russell is also the author of St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories, Sleep Donation: A Novella, and most recently, Orange World: and Other Stories. She currently holds the Endowed Chair at Texas State University’s MFA program, and lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and two children.
The Writers@Work program would like to invite the public to the following events free of charge.
Public Schedule of Events
Inside the Mind of Karen Russell: The Behind-The-Writer Interview
Tuesday, March 29, 5:15 p.m.
The Hunter Museum of American Art
Enjoy beautiful views of the Tennessee River from the lobby of the Hunter Museum during this evening with Karen Russell. Arrive at 5:15 p.m. to experience Baggs McKelvey's new installation, Indigo; the artist will be present to discuss this piece and its connection to themes in Ms. Russell's collection. Drift back to the lobby by 6 p.m. for Writers@Work's annual interview night; ChattState English Professor Erica Lux will interview Karen Russell about her journey to becoming a writer, her writing process, and what it means to be a Southern author. Join us at the Hunter Museum of American Art to ask questions, get your books signed, and mingle with other readers from the community at our dessert reception. Find more information at https://www.chattbigread.com/
Those Devilish Details: How Research Brought Orange World to Life
Thursday, March 31, 2 p.m.
Virtual Zoom Event
Orange World, like all of Karen Russell’s work, is rich in fantastical details that make those magical worlds come to life. In this virtual Chautauqua meeting, Russell will discuss her research process for Orange World and answer questions from participants. Free registration is available at www.chattbigread.org. Find more information at https://www.chattbigread.com/
For more information on the program or these events, please visit the program’s website at www.chattbigread.com.