Writer Stewart O’Nan, whose novels, short stories, nonfiction and screenplays all paint a portrait of American life, will speak Feb. 27 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He will also participate in other events.
As the 2014 Distinguished Writer-in-Residence, O’Nan will present a free public reading at 7:30 p.m. in the Genome Sciences Building auditorium. Free parking is available in the Bell Tower parking deck after 5 p.m. The talk is sponsored by the department of English and comparative literature in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Additional free events include:
- Feb. 24: Screening of “Snow Angels,” movie based upon O’Nan’s book of the same name. 5 p.m., Varsity Theater, Chapel Hill.
- Feb. 26: “Baseball: The Great American Story,” a panel discussion featuring O’Nan; Mike Fox, Carolina’s baseball coach; Gabby Calvocoressi, poet and catcher emeritus; and William Leuchtenburg, distinguished professor emeritus and baseball fan. 3:30 p.m., Hyde Hall.
O’Nan’s work has twice been cited as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and Salon magazine has called him “our best working novelist.”
O’Nan has written on a variety of topics, including indelible portraits of soldiers in Vietnam; the rants of a spree-killing, love-sick speed queen on death row; tender accounts of middle-age love and marriage; and devastating circus fires.
His short novel, “Last Night at the Lobster” (2008), deals with the last night of a Red Lobster franchise, where he illuminates the lives of the beleaguered manager, his girlfriend and lover, the struggling waitresses, the no-show cooks and customers. In “Faithful” (2005), which he wrote with Stephen King, Nan’s passion for baseball shines as he chronicles the 2004 season of the Boston Red Sox.
