One of her novels, “The Rapture of Canaan,” was a New York Times bestseller and an Oprah Book Club selection, and now Sheri Reynolds’ first play, “Orabelle’s Wheelbarrow,” is attracting attention.

The Women Playwrights’ Initiative (WPI) has chosen the play for its second annual world premiere production. It will be performed Sept. 13-18 at The Rep’s Tupperware Theatre in Loch Haven Park, Orlando, Fla. Playwrights from nine Southeastern states submitted entries for the 2005 WPI competition.

An associate professor of English and the Ruth and Perry Morgan Chair of Southern Literature, Reynolds joined the ODU faculty in 1997.

“Orabelle’s Wheelbarrow,” Reynolds says, “is a play about promises – the ones we break, the ones we keep and the ones that transform into new promises, whether we want them to or not.”

Reynolds’ fourth novel, “The Firefly Cloak,” will be released next year by Harmony Books.