Notable young author to offer public reading while 'in residence' at UNL

            Acclaimed fiction author ZZ Packer, regarded as one of the country's best young novelists, will give a public reading March 8 and participate in other community activities as part of a visit to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

            Packer is this year's "Writer in Residence" for UNL's Department of English and Creative Writing Program. Her visit also is hosted by UNL's Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.

            The March 8 reading, which will be followed by a reception and a book signing, is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Great Plains Art Museum, 1155 Q St. She also will offer a craft talk on "Voice in Fiction" at 12:30 p.m. on March 7 in the Dudley Bailey Library in Andrews Hall, 14th and T streets. Both events are free and open to the public.

            Packer is the author of a short story collection "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere," which was a PEN/Faulkner finalist and a New York Times Notable Book. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and was recently named one of America's Young Innovators by Smithsonian Magazine, as well as one of America's Best Young novelists by Granta Magazine. Packer's stories have appeared in the New Yorker, Harper's, Story, Ploughshares, Zoetrope and Best American Short Stories 2000 and 2004, and have been read on NPR's "Selected Shorts." She was featured in the New Yorker's summer 2010 "20 Under 40" fiction issue.  Her nonfiction has been featured in the New York Times Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post Magazine, The American Prospect, Essence, O, The Believer and Salon. She is a contributor to the Huffington Post, and has appeared several times as a commentator on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" and MSNBC.

Writer: Danielle Metcalf, Graduate Research Assistant, Department of English