Amy Bloom, critically acclaimed fiction writer and a licensed psychotherapist, will read from her work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 18, for The Writing Program Reading Series at Washington University in St. Louis. In addition, Bloom will give a talk on the craft of fiction at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 25.
Both events — which are sponsored by The Writing Program and Department of English, both in Arts & Sciences — are free and open to the public and take place in Hurst Lounge, Room 201, Duncker Hall, on Washington University’s Hilltop Campus. A book-signing and reception will follow each, and copies of Bloom’s works will be available for purchase. Duncker Hall is located at the northwest corner of Brookings Quadrangle, near the intersection of Brookings and Hoyt drives. For more information, call (314) 935-7130.
Bloom is the author of two collections of stories, Come to Me and A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You, as well as the novel Love Invents Us and, most recently, a book of non-fiction, NORMAL: Transsexual CEOs, Crossdressing Cops and Hermaphrodites with Attitude. She has been nominated for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Fiction Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award for her fiction.
Of Bloom’s work, Marshall Klimasewiski, assistant professor of English at Washington University, observes: “Her primary topic, as the titles of her books suggest, is love, but the great thing about Amy Bloom is that you can never predict the forms it will take in her work. Love sprouts up in the oddest and least-sanctioned places, and she’s terrific at conveying not only its thrill but its cost and sometimes the devastation it leaves behind.”
Bloom will spend two weeks in residence at Washington University, serving as Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in the Department of English. She teaches fiction writing at Yale University.