Writer George Saunders spoke tonight at the newly remodeled Northrop Auditorium (FYI…the new seats are terrible) and I was fortunate to attend on my dinner break. One of the nice things about working at a major university is that there is always something going on, a lecture, book signing, museum exhibit, or other event and every once in awhile I actually leave the library on my dinner break and attend.
Here is the blurb that Northrop posted about George Saunders: “The recipient of a 2006 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (“Genius” Award), George Saunders is the author of four collections of short stories, a novella, and a book of essays. The most recent collection is Tenth of December (Random House, 2013), winner of the 2014 Story Prize for short fiction and 2014 Folio Prize, which celebrates the best fiction of our time. Chair of the Judges for the Folio Prize, Lavinia Greenlaw, said, ?“George Saunders’s stories are both artful and profound. Darkly playful, they take us to the edge of some of the most difficult questions of our time and force us to consider what lies behind and beyond them. His subject is the human self under ordinary and extraordinary pressure. His worlds are heightened versions of our own, full of inexorable confrontations from which we are not easily released. Unflinching, delightful, adventurous, compassionate, he is a true original whose work is absolutely of the moment. We have no doubt that these stories will prove only more essential in years to come.” Tenth of December was also nominated for the 2013 National Book Award in Fiction and named one of the ten best books of the year by The New York Times Book Review” (http://www.northrop.umn.edu/events/evening-george-saunders).
George’s talk was very funny, which was not something that I expected. I guess I expected him to be very serious and he was not. He was delightful. He had the audience sing Happy Birthday to his mother-in-law who was in the audience. He read and did various voices (his baby deer voice was hysterical) from one of his stories ‘Victory Lap’ from the book “Tenth of December,” and then discussed how he wrote the story. He mentioned that this short story took over one year to write and that he was working on the book for seven years. After it ended free copies of “Tenth of December” were given out to UMN students (the talk was also free to UMN students, but the general public had to paid $25) as its the College of Liberal Arts First Year Experience Common Reading book for the year. I was able to attend the talk for free and get a free book because I am a Masters student at the U (you had to include your student ID number when you purchased the ticket). So I went over to the book table in the lobby to picked up my free book (I was the first one there, having bolted out of my seat the second Saunders ended his talk) and the book helpers asked if I would like it autographed! HELLO! YES! So first in line and an autographed book. Sweet. George arrived a few minutes later and was very nice. He said hello, thanked me for coming, shook my hand, signed my book, and then apologized for misspelling my name (which I had written out on a little yellow post-it-note). I mentioned that I was a librarian (really, sometimes I have no idea what comes out of my mouth or why I would even mention that I was a librarian) and he said ‘its a noble profession.’ So I took my newly autographed book, noticed the huge line of people waiting to have their books autographed, and walked back to the library.
