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Visiting Writers Series to Feature
Pulitzer Prize-Winner Richard Russo

Posted October 7, 2002

HOLLAND -- Richard Russo, winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, is the second author on Hope College's 2002-03 Visiting Writers Series.

Russo will be reading on Monday, Oct. 21, at 7 p.m. at the Knickerbocker Theatre, located in downtown Holland at 86 E. 8th St.

The public is invited. Admission is free.

Russo's fifth novel, "Empire Falls," was selected for the Pulitzer Prize, and was named best novel of the year by "Time" magazine.

But Russo's writing was already finding plenty of success before the whirlwind that follows a Pulitzer Prize. His novels have become best-sellers, and his third book, "Nobody's Fool," was turned into an Academy Award-nominated movie starring Paul Newman and Bruce Willis.

Russo is currently working a screenplay for "Empire Falls" for HBO.

His most recent book is his first collection of short stories, titled "The Whore's Child and Other Stories." The "New Yorker" magazine said that the collection extends Russo's versatility and accomplishment, in a collection that demonstrates yet again that "there is a big, wry heart beating at the center of Russo's fiction."

The New York-born writer now lives with his family in Maine. He began writing fiction while finishing his doctorate in American literature from the University of Arizona.

The praise has been coming ever since.

"The New York Times Book Review" has called Russo "one of the best novelists around," and the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution" has said that "nobody does small-town life better than Richard Russo."

While on campus, Russo will be meeting with Hope students to discuss the writing process, and his life as a writer.

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