Description: Join the Indiana Center for the Book and the Rhode Island Center for the Book for “An Evening with Laird Hunt,” author of the 2021 National Book Award finalist, “Zorrie.” This title is being featured by both Indiana and Rhode Island at the 2022 National Book Festival. “Zorrie” tells the story of one Hoosier woman’s life convulsed and transformed by events of the 20th century, specifically the Great Depression. Set in Clinton County, Indiana, Zorrie is orphaned twice, first by her parents and then her aunt. She ekes out a living, eventually finding work in a radium processing plant in Illinois. However, when Indiana calls her home, she returns and works to build a new life, yet again. Laird Hunt’s novel is a poignant study in rural Midwestern life and an exploration of the passage of time through individuals and communities. Join us to learn more about the author and this fascinating novel.

Date Recorded: 8/2/22

Format: Archived YouTube Video

Speaker:  Laird Hunt is the author of eight novels, including the 2021 National Book Award finalist “Zorrie.” He is the winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction, the Grand Prix de Littérature Américaine, the Bridge Prize and a finalist for both the Pen/Faulkner and the Prix Femina Étranger. His reviews and essays have been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Daily Beast, the Guardian, the Irish Times and the Los Angeles Times, and his fiction and translations have appeared in many literary journals in the United States and abroad. A former United Nations press officer who was largely raised in rural Indiana, he now lives in Providence, Rhode Island where he teaches in Brown University’s Literary Arts Program.

Resources:

• 2022 Indiana NBF Toolkit