The first speaker of the 2002 River City Writers’ Series will read a fiction work of his own at Mitchell Auditorium on Thursday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m.
Steve Stern, an award-winning fiction writer, is also the Moss Chair of Excellence in the English Department at The University of Memphis, and currently teaches two graduate-level writing workshops.
“He is often called a Southern Woody Allen,” said Randall Kenan, the series director and a professor of creative writing at The U of M. “He’s a wonderful comic writer.”
When interviewed, Stern insisted that he is 176 years old.
“I’m extremely well-preserved for my years,” he said.
Stern, a native Memphian, has been the recipient of numerous literary awards, including an O. Henry Prize, a Pushcart Writer’s Choice Award, the Edward Lewis Wallant Award for Jewish American Fiction and the Jewish Book Award.
A Jewish American, Stern has written stories including The Moon and Rubin Skein, Harry Kaplan’s Adventures and Lazar Malkin Enters Heaven.
“Many of my stories have been set on about three blocks on North Main Street, in a Jewish neighborhood called the Pinch,” Stern said. “These stories are efforts to mythologize that neighborhood.”
“His writing illuminates an older Memphis and its Jewish heritage, which most people are not aware of,” Kenan said. “His writing is entertaining and also educational.”
Students may have few opportunities to hear Stern in the future. He said he is trying to lessen the number of public readings he gives.
“I’m getting a little tired of the sound of my own voice,” said Stern, who teaches in Prague during the summer months. While there, Stern reads his work as what he calls the “warm-up act” for some of the Czechoslovakian writers who also read in Prague.
Stern earned his Bachelor of Arts in English at Rhodes College and his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at The University of Arkansas.
The River City Writers’ Series, now in its 25th year at The U of M, was created to bring some of the world’s best writers to read from their work, and to stimulate conversation about contemporary literature.
Other writers coming to The U of M this semester include award-winning non-fiction writer Susan Orleans, author of The Orchid Thief. She will read from her work on March 21 in the Faulkner Lounge.
On April 18, novelist David Galef and poet Claude Wilkinson will read together in Mitchell Auditorium.
The series is sponsored by the University of Memphis Creative Writing Club with support from the Student Activities Council along with the English Department and the Creative Writing Program.
