The West Virginia University Department of English will host a reading by Gary Fincke, at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 19 in 130 Colson Hall.

Fincke is the Charles B. Degenstein Professor of English and Creative Writing at Susquehanna University and also serves as the institution’s director of The Writers Institute.

Winner of the 2003 Flannery O’Connor Prize for Short Fiction for his collection, “Sorry I Worried You,” Fincke has published 25 books of poetry, short fiction and nonfiction.

His most recent works include “The Proper Words for Sin,” which was published by the WVU Press this year. His 2011 poetry collection “The History of Permanence” won the Stephen F. Austin Poetry Prize.

Fincke also has written 2010’s “The Canals of Mars: A Memoir,” “The Fire Landscape” (2008); “Standing around the Heart” (2005); “Sorry I Worried You” (2004); and “Amp’d: A Father’s Backstage Pass,” a nonfiction account of his son’s life as a rock guitarist in the band Breaking Benjamin.

His next book will be the novel, “How Blasphemy Sounds to God,” from Braddock Avenue Books.

His poems, stories and essays have appeared in such periodicals as Harper’s Magazine, Newsday, The Paris Review, Kenyon Review, The Georgia Review, The American Scholar and DoubleTake.

The reading is free and open to the public. A book signing and reception will follow.

For more information, contact Mary Ann Samyn, at 304-293-9730 or maryann.samyn@mail.wvu.edu.

-WVU-

mb/09/13/13

CONTACT: Mary Ann Samyn, Director, Creative Writing Program
304-293-9730, Maryann.Samyn@mail.wvu.edu

Follow @WVUToday on Twitter.