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Award-winning novelist to give reading at WVU March 17

CELEBRATED NOVELIST — Patricia Elam will read from her novel, "Breathing Room," March 17 at WVU. Booklist called "Breathing Room" a "compassionate and genuine" novel that grapples with "the uncertainty and burden of motherhood, the compromise of friendship and the power of intimacy."

Patricia Elam’s novel is called “Breathing Room,” and when she reads from her book March 17 at West Virginia University, it may be in front of a standing-room only audience.

Elam – whose work has appeared in such prominent venues as Essence, The Washington Post, Newsday and the O. Henry Awards: Prize Stories anthology – will be the first author to give a reading for the public in the newly refurbished Colson Hall, across from WVU’s Downtown Library.

The reading will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Room 130. Admission is free.

Publisher’s Weekly called “Breathing Room” a “fluid debut novel.” The review praised the “sensitive handling of volatile topics (interracial affairs, teen drug use and dealing and the loss of virginity)” in this “affecting story of sisterhood.”

Booklist called “Breathing Room” a “compassionate and genuine” novel that grapples with “the uncertainty and burden of motherhood, the compromise of friendship and the power of intimacy.”

“We’re thrilled to have Patricia Elam read at WVU,” said Mark Brazaitis, associate professor of English. “We have a dynamic reading series, and Patricia makes it all the more impressive.”

In addition to her writing, Elam has provided commentary to such media outlets as National Public Radio, the BBC, NBC News, CNN and Maryland Public Television.

Elam currently chairs the creative writing program at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C.