Best-selling author to read stories

By Michael Watanabe
Daily Forty-Niner
 

Novelist Aimee Bender will invite listeners into the magical worlds she creates in her contemporary novels and short stories Thursday in the Faculty Development Center at 7 p.m.

Bender has written several short stories and has recently published a novel, "An Invisible Sign of my Own."

"Aimee Bender is a young fiction writer that exploded out of the gate a couple of years ago," said Stephen Cooper, this semester's creative writing coordinator.

Bender, a graduate of the UC Irvine fiction program, is best known for her short story collection, titled "The Girl in the Flammable Skirt." The collection received positive reviews from the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Her "stories often incorporate magical or fairy-tale elements mixed in with what we think of as more contemporary fiction," said English professor Suzanne Greenberg.

Cooper adds: "Her stories sometimes read like modern fairy tales of desire, forgiveness, love, loneliness, and how these experiences transform us.

"She writes about young people often who are often in complicated often comical life-situations. She has a delightfully inimitable style that is all her own," he said.

Bender plans on discussing her work and answering questions from the audience. Cooper hopes she also reads a couple of short stories as well.

The editors of Riprap, the department's literary journal published every spring, will get the chance to interview Bender.

The interview is the second in an ongoing series of interviews with prominent authors. Thom Jones was the first to be interviewed.

"I hope that many, many people come," Cooper said. "It's a special opportunity to the students, faculty and other members of the community."

The reading is free, and open to the public. The Faculty Development Center is on the fifth floor of the University Library.