BARD FICTION PRIZE WINNER PAUL LAFARGE WILL READ FROM HIS WORK ON JANUARY 31 AT BARD COLLEGE

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—Writer in residence Paul LaFarge, who received the annual Bard Fiction Prize for 2004 for his novel Haussmann, or the Distinction, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2001), will read from his recent work at Bard College on Monday, January 31. The free program will begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Weis Cinema of the Bertelsmann Campus Center. Bard Fiction Prize judges Mary Caponegro, Robert Kelly, and Bradford Morrow describe LaFarge’s Haussmann, or the Distinction, as “a structurally elegant narrative, lighthandedly wise and wittily profound, where characters of a folkloric simplicity interweave with urgent sophisticates in nineteenth-century Paris, or rather in that shimmering zone between history and its shadow: the dreams a city makes us dream and fancy we remember.” Paul LaFarge is the author of two novels: The Artist of the Missing, and Haussmann, or the Distinction, which was a New York Times Notable Book for 2001. His stories have appeared in Conjunctions, Fence, STORY, McSweeney’s, and elsewhere, and his essays have been published in the Village Voice and The Believer, and on salon.com. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002 and is currently working on his fourth novel, which is about airplanes. His third book, The Facts of Winter, will be published by McSweeney’s Books in 2005. The creation of the Bard Fiction Prize, presented each October to a promising young fiction writer, can be viewed as a continuation of Bard’s long-standing position as a center for creative, groundbreaking literary work by both faculty and students. From Saul Bellow, William Gaddis, Mary McCarthy, and Ralph Ellison to John Ashbery, Philip Roth, William Weaver, and Chinua Achebe, Bard literature faculty, past and present, represent some of the most important American writers of our time. The prize is intended to encourage and support young writers of fiction to pursue their creative goals and to provide an opportunity to work in a fertile and intellectual environment. Last year’s Bard Fiction Prize was awarded to writer Monique Truong, author of the novel The Book of Salt (Houghton Mifflin, 2003). # The Bard Fiction Prize is awarded annually to a promising, emerging writer who is an American citizen aged 39 years or younger at the time of application. In addition to the monetary award, the winner receives an appointment as writer in residence at Bard College for one semester without the expectation that he or she teach traditional courses. The recipient will give at least one public lecture and will meet informally with students. To apply, candidates should write a cover letter explaining the project they plan to work on while at Bard and submit a C.V., along with three copies of the published book they feel best represents their work. No manuscripts will be accepted. Applications for the 2005 prize must be received by July 15, 2005. For information about the Bard Fiction Prize, call 845-758-7087, send an e-mail to [email protected], or visit www.bard.edu/bfp. Applicants may also request information by writing to the Bard Fiction Prize, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000. # # # (1/20/05)

This event was last updated on 02-25-2005

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