Fiction Writer Debra Monroe to Visit Campus

Contact: Jean Cunningham, 593-4181

Editors: An image of Monroe is at www.ohiou.edu/news/pix/MONROE_DEBRA.JPG

ATHENS, Ohio (February 6, 2001) -- Award-winning fiction writer Debra Monroe will read from her work at 8 p.m. Feb. 14 in Ohio University's Music Building Recital Hall.

Monroe, who teaches at Southwest Texas State University, brings a critically acclaimed wit to the world of fiction. Her first collection of stories, "The Source of Trouble," was awarded the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction.

"Monroe is a strong and original voice, witty and sly Š but with a clear eye for the strifes that divide -- and unite -- lovers and families. She is especially good at delineating the kind of female psyche that finds its male counterpart in the stories of Richard Ford and Raymond Carver," said one Flannery O'Connor judge of Monroe's work.

Monroe's second collection, "A Wild Cold State," received popular acclaim in Elle magazine as one of the 10 best books of the season and made Vanity Fair's "Hot Type" list. Her most recent work, "Newfangled," was nominated by its publisher for a National Book Award.

The reading, sponsored by the creative writing program in the English Department, is free and open to the public.