'Literary Provocateur' Steve Almond to Give Talk Oct. 27

Author, journalist, blogger and commentator Steve Almond, the author of "God Bless America: Stories" (Lookout Books/UNC/Wilmington, 2011), will speak at 4:20 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, in Room 1012 of the Batten Arts and Letters Building.

The talk, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by Old Dominion's M.F.A. Creative Writing Program and Friends of the M.F.A. Program.

The Houston Chronicle has called Almond "a writer who knows us as well as we know ourselves," and fellow writer Junot Diaz has referred to him as "one of our finest literary provocateurs."

Published just this month, "God Bless America" was written by a "gifted storyteller" who delivers "always enjoyable, often hysterical stories," according to the New York Times Book Review. The book is a meditation on the American Dream and its discontents. In his most ambitious collection yet, Almond offers a comic and forlorn portrait of these United States: our lust for fame, our racial tensions, the toll of perpetual war and the pursuit of romantic happiness.

For more information about the talk call 683-3929.