Tim O'Brien, Acclaimed Author of "The Things They Carried," to Read at the College Oct.18

CHESTERTOWN, MD—National Book Award winner Tim O’Brien will read from his acclaimed works of fiction on Thursday, October 18 at Washington College. The reading will be held at 4 p.m. in Decker Theatre, the Daniel Z. Gibson Center for the Arts,  and is free and open to the public.

         O’Brien’s successful literary career spans decades; in 1979 his novel Going After Cacciato was named the National Book Award winner in fiction, and in 1994 his In the Lake of the Woods was Time magazine’s pick for best novel of the year.

         Perhaps his most celebrated work is The Things They Carried (1990), a mélange of fiction and memoir on the Vietnam War. It was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was the winner of one of France’s top literary prizes, the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger. In a Washington Times review of the 20th anniversary reissue of the book, John Greenya wrote, “Many people think [The Things They Carried] is the best work of fiction ever written about Vietnam. Some even think it is the best work of fiction ever written about war. Both are right.”

         The American Academy of Arts and Letters presented O’Brien the Katherine Anne Porter Award for a distinguished lifetime body of work in 2010. His short fiction has been published in The New Yorker, the Atlantic, Esquire, and many editions of The O. Henry Prize Stories and The Best American Short Stories, and his books have been translated into more than 20 languages. He currently lives, teaches, and writes in central Texas.

         The October 18 reading is sponsored by the Sophie Kerr Lecture Series and the Douglas Cater Society of Junior Fellows. This will be a second visit to Washington College for O’Brien, who in 2003 was the featured speaker for Sophie Kerr Weekend.

         The Gibson Center for the Arts is located on the main College campus, 300 Washington Avenue, Chestertown.