A West Virginia University professor and a graduate of WVU will give a reading of their literary works Tuesday, Feb. 26, at 7:30 p.m. in the Robinson Reading Room of the WVU Downtown Library. The reading is free and open to the public.

Professor Kevin Oderman was awarded the Bakeless Prize for his book of literary essays, “How Things Fit Together,” which was published by University Press of New England. He is also the author of the novels “Going” and “White Vespa” and a book of literary criticism, “Ezra Pound and the Erotic Medium.” Oderman’s work has appeared in North American Review, Shenandoah, Southwest Review, Northwest Review, North Dakota Quarterly and elsewhere. He has twice been a Fulbright Scholar, first in Thessaloniki, Greece, and subsequently in Lahore, Pakistan.

WVU alumnus Jessie van Eerden, a West Virginia native, holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from West Virginia University and a Master of Fine Arts in nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa. Her work has appeared in The Oxford American, River Teeth, Image, Bellingham Review, Rock & Sling and other publications. Her essays have been selected for inclusion in “Dreams and Inward Journeys: A Rhetoric and Reader for Writers,” “Best American Spiritual Writing” and “Jesus Girls: True Tales of Growing Up Female and Evangelical.” She was selected as the 2007-2008 Milton Fellow with Image and Seattle Pacific University for work on her first novel, “Glorybound,” now in print.

Jessie has taught for more than 10 years in college classrooms and in adult literacy programs. She directs the low-residency Master of Fine Arts writing program at West Virginia Wesleyan College.

“Both Kevin and Jessie have new, exciting books out, and it will be a treat to hear them read from them,” said Mark Brazaitis, a professor in the Department of English and the director of WVU’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program. “Both writers are astute observers of human nature. Their works are precise and beautiful, elegant and revelatory.”

Oderman’s new work is “White Vespa.” Van Eerden will read from “Glorybound.”

For more information, contact Mark Brazaitis at mark.brazaitis@mail.wvu.edu.

-WVU-

mb2/06/13

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