KSC Alumnus Ernest Hebert and Friends to Talk on Writing and the Influence of Place
KEENE, N.H. 6/1/06 - Three Monadnock writers will discuss the writing process, the influence of place, and the making of books on Saturday, June 10, from 2 to 4:30 p.m. in Rhodes Hall, at Keene State College.
The focus will be on six of Ernest Hebert’s novels set in the fictional town of Darby, N.H., which is based on his native Keene. The Boston Globe hailed the series as “one of the most interesting accomplishments of contemporary American fiction ” … [a series] into which the texture of class is as skillfully woven as it is in Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County.”
Ober will open with a talk on Hebert’s work and influences. Hebert will read from his work, and Mansfield will interview Hebert. A reception with refreshments and book signing will follow.
Ernest Hebert (KSC ‘69) is a professor of English and creative writing at Dartmouth College. He has written six novels in the Darby series, which he began more than 25 years ago. The Darby novels include Spoonwood (Dartmouth College Press, 2005), _The Dogs of March, The Kinship, Whisper My Name, Live Free or Die, _and Mad Boys, which won the New Hampshire Writers’ Project Literary Award for Outstanding Fiction in 1994. Hebert’s historical novel, The Old American, received the same award in 2001.
Howard Mansfield is the author of five books, including _The Bones of the Earth, In the Memory House, _and The Same Ax, Twice, and editor of Where the Mountain Stands Alone (UPNE 2006), an anthology of Monadnock writers that includes work by Hebert and Ober.
Richard Ober, executive director of the Monadnock Conservancy, has written and lectured widely on the connections between people and place. His 1996 book, The Northern Forest, coauthored with David Dobbs, won the New Hampshire Outstanding Nonfiction Award, the Vermont Book of the Year, the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award, and a Choice Academic Award.
This event is cosponsored by the Keene State College English Department, the New Hampshire Writers’ Project, and the Lincoln Financial Group Foundation. Admission is $25 for New Hampshire Writers’ Project members, $30 nonmembers. For more information visit www.nhwritersproject.org or call 603-314-7980.
