In addition, Davis will speak on the craft of fiction at 8 p.m. Feb. 22. Both events will take place in Hurst Lounge, Duncker Hall, Room 201.

Kathryn Davis

Davis, the visiting Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in the Department of English in Arts & Sciences, is the author of five novels: Labrador, The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf, The Walking Tour, Hell and Versailles. Her sixth novel, The Thin Place, will be released in January.

"Kathryn Davis' fiction defies description," said Kellie Wells, assistant professor of English and fiction writer on The Writing Program faculty. "No other writer boldly dares to claim-stake the same fictional territory. No one else writes a sentence like Davis or bores through the world's deceptive veneer with the gimlet eye that she does.

"Her voice is one of the most interesting and original in American fiction."

Davis has received a Kafka Prize for fiction by an American woman; the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She teaches at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Both events are free and open to the public. A reception will follow each, and copies of Davis' books will be available for purchase after the reading.

For more information, call 935-7130.