A Special Visit

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan coming to Dickinson April 4

by Christine Baksi

March 30, 2012

In an October 2011 interview with National Public Radio, Egan discusses writing A Visit From the Goon Squad and some of what inspired the work, including the television show, “The Sopranos” and the Marcel Proust novel, In Search of Lost Time. “My goal was to try to create that sense of the sweep of time and the radical changes that it brings, but not do it in real-time as he [Proust] did.” (Photo by) Pieter M. Van Hattem

A Visit From the Goon Squad, a novel acclaimed by critics and beloved by younger generations for twisting themes of time and nostalgia with fascinating storytelling, won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Author Jennifer Egan will discuss the book, the characters and the writing process at Dickinson on Wednesday, April 4 at 6 p.m. in the Anita Tuvin Schlechter (ATS) Auditorium, followed by a book sale and signing. The event is free and open to the public.

Acclaimed Author 

Egan’s novel The Invisible Circus became a feature film starring Cameron Diaz in 2001 and Look at Me was a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction in 2001. Other works include Emerald City and Other Stories and The Keep—a national bestseller.  

Her short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, Granta and McSweeney’s. She is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in fiction and a Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Fellowship at the New York Public Library. Her nonfiction articles appear frequently in The New York Times Magazine.  

Morgan Lectureship 

Egan’s presentation is part of Dickinson’s Morgan Lectureship Series, which brings to campus a scholar-in-residence to meet informally with students and to deliver a lecture on topics in the social sciences and humanities. Past speakers include Art Spiegelman, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic-novel memoir Maus, Nadine Strossen, the first woman president of the American Civil Liberties Union and Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges.

The event is co-sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues , Student Senate, the Office of Student Development, the Women’s Center and departments of English, American studies, women’s & gender studies, sociology and political science.