Jennifer Egan Click on image to download print-quality version

GRANTHAM, Pa. (Oct. 3, 2007) — On Oct. 23, the Messiah College Poets and Writers series will sponsor a fiction reading by acclaimed novelist and journalist Jennifer Egan. Egan, whose published fiction covers a wide spectrum of style and genre, has been termed a “refreshingly unclassifiable novelist” by the “New York Times Book Review.” Her reading will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the Howe Atrium of the Boyer Hall academic building on the college’s Grantham campus. The reading is free and open to the public.

Egan’s career as a writer has been marked with accolades. Her novel “Look at Me” was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2001. “The Keep” was named “New York Times” Notable Book and a national bestseller, in addition to making it onto the “Chicago Tribune’s” and “San Francisco Chronicle’s” “Best Books” lists. Her masterful writing has garnered her a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She has also written numerous “New York Times Magazine” cover stories and published several pieces of short fiction in “The New Yorker,” “Harper’s,” “Ploughshares” and “Zoetrope,” among others.

The Messiah College Poets and Writers series is sponsored by the English department and strives to bring acclaimed poets and writers to the college throughout the academic year. Previous visiting writers include Amy Tan, Donald Hall, Robert Pinsky, Li-Young Lee, Claudia Rankine and Lee Martin.

Messiah College, a private Christian college of the liberal and applied arts and sciences, enrolls more than 2,800 undergraduate students in 60 majors. Established in 1909, the primary campus is located in Grantham, Pa., near the state capital of Harrisburg. A satellite campus affiliated with Temple University is located in Philadelphia.