January 25, 2011     

AMHERST, Mass.—Novelist Paul Harding will read from his work at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 10, at Amherst Books (8 Main Street). Sponsored by the Amherst College Creative Writing Center, the event is open to the public at no charge.

Harding’s debut novel, Tinkers, was winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize and PEN / Robert Bingham Fellowship for Writers Award; the book was published independently after its rejection by major publishing houses. Marilynne Robinson calls Tinkers, “truly remarkable. . . It confers on the reader the best privilege fiction can afford, the illusion of ghostly proximity to other human souls.” And the San Francisco Chronicle writes, “In Paul Harding’s stunning first novel, we find what readers, writers and reviewers live for.”

Harding graduated from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and was a drummer for the band Cold Water Flat before earning his master of fine arts degree from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. A 2010 Guggenheim fellow, he now lives near Boston with his wife and two sons, and is working on his second novel.

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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