February 7, 2008
Contact: Caroline Jenkins Hanna
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417
* Editor's Note: Due to unforeseen circumstances, Emily Barton's reading this evening has been canceled.
AMHERST, Mass.—Author Emily Barton will read from her work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 28, at Amherst Books (8 Main Street, Amherst, Mass.). Sponsored by the Amherst College Creative Writing Center, the event is open to the public at no charge.
Writing for The New York Observer, Adam Begley called Barton “a copiously talented, daring writer,” and Thomas Pynchon has described her work as “blessedly post-ironic, engaging and heartfelt.” Her novel Brookland—which imagines an 18th-century gin distiller who dreams of a bridge that might connect her Brooklyn to Manhattan—also earned high praise from The New York Times; the paper called Brookland “[m]arvelous,” and named it a 2006 Notable Book.
Barton has received numerous fellowships and awards and currently serves as distinguished visiting writer at Bard College. In addition to Brookland, she has authored The Testament of Yves Gundron. They were published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2006 and 2000, respectively.
Every year, the Amherst College Creative Writing Center sponsors a reading series featuring both emerging and established authors. All events are wheelchair accessible and followed by refreshments. For more information, please call 413/542-8200.
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