Dawgnet: Rescheduled visiting writer recites most recent work

Rescheduled visiting writer recites most recent work

By Allison Brown
Dawgnet Staff Writer

Wednesday, March 5, 2008, 15:28 EST

Fiction writer Antonya Nelson read from her most recent work, a short story called “Or Else,” during a visit to Butler’s campus on Feb. 26 as part of the Vivian S. Delbrook Visiting Writers Series.

Nelson is the author of eight fiction works and the winner of several literary awards including the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction and the Heartland Award.

Nelson said she chose to read “Or Else” because her most recent writing is the most interesting material that she has to offer.

The short story was a nostalgic account of a man named David and his return, with a girlfriend, to his hometown in Telluride, Colo. But the trip reveals that there are many secrets that mask the happy, idyllic life he said he had led during his childhood.

As Nelson read more of her story, it was soon discovered that David is a “liar by nature” and that many of the stories he is telling his girlfriend, Danielle, are not entirely true. When Danielle realized that David had been twisting much of what he told her, she accused him of living in the past. “Or Else” is the story of a man who has fixated on the nostalgia of his childhood despite its imperfections.

Nelson, a Wichita, Kan. native, is a part of the creative writing faculty at the University of Houston and lives in both Colorado and Texas.

Professor Susan Neville, a member of the faculty committee that chooses the writers who participate in Butler’s Visiting Writers Series, said, “We chose Antonya Nelson because she’s one of the country’s finest living short story writers. She’s won just about every major short fiction award, and her stories are truly amazing.”

Neville, who is also a fiction writer and English professor, said she and several other Butler professors have included some of Nelson’s works in their curriculum.