OTTERBEIN COLLEGE WELCOMES 2009 COMMON BOOK SPEAKER

(Westerville, OH) -- West Virginia native Ann Pancake, author of Otterbein College’s 2009 Common Book Strange As This Weather Has Been, will visit Otterbein on Oct. 26-28. She will present a public lecture at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 27, in Cowan Hall, 30 S. Grove St. The lecture will be followed by a book signing and reception in Fisher Gallery of Roush Hall, 27 S. Grove St. There will be a second public lecture sponsored by the Otterbein College Friends of the Library at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 28 in Courtright Memorial Library on the northwest corner of Main and Grove Streets.

Ann Pancake grew up in Romney and Summersville, WV. Her first novel, Strange As This Weather Has Been, features a southern West Virginia family devastated by mountaintop removal mining. Based on interviews and real events, the novel was one of Kirkus Review's Top Ten Fiction Books of 2007, won the 2007 Weatherford Award, and was a finalist for the 2008 Orion Book Award.

Pancake's collection of short stories, Given Ground, won the 2000 Bakeless Award, and she has also received a Whiting Award, an NEA Grant, a Pushcart Prize, and creative writing fellowships from the states of Washington, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Her fiction and essays have appeared in journals and anthologies like Glimmer Train, Poets and Writers, Narrative and New Stories from the South. She earned her bachelor's degree in English at West Virginia University and a doctorate degree in English literature from the University of Washington. Currently, she teaches in the low-residency MFA program at Pacific Lutheran University.

The unique Common Book Program is made possible through The Thomas Academic Excellence Series. Since 1995, the series seeks to stimulate a year-long discussion of an academic theme derived from common book issues by exploring it in classes, residence halls, and co-curricular programming. This common reading experience involves all incoming first-year students, faculty, many staff members, and student leaders. A committee of faculty, staff, and students select from over fifty books each year in an effort to find a significant contemporary work to read the next year. For more information about the College’s Common Book program, contact Kate Lehman at (614) 823-3202.