Fiction writer Rob Davidson reads at Cal State East Bay May 9
Rob Davidson will read from his latest book May 9.
- April 3, 2012
Fiction writer Rob Davidson will read from his new book, “The Farther Shore: Stories,” when he appears Wednesday, May 9, at Cal State East Bay as a guest of the English Department’s Distinguished Writers Series.
The 7 p.m. reading will be in the Biella Room of the University Library on CSUEB's Hayward Campus, 25800 Carlos Bee Blvd. Admission is free, and the public is invited. A book signing will follow. This will be the fourth and last guest in the Distinguished Writer series for the academic year.
In describing his style, Davidson said: “I write character-driven literary realism that seeks to illuminate, in the finest language I can muster, the lives of real people.
“I think of character in fiction: that thing which I know to be a fiction, a construction of language, and yet I must pretend it isn’t," he said. "I unabashedly love best those writers who, in anticipation of my hunger, pretend hardest. Henry James. Alice Munro. William Trevor. Junot Diaz."
Stephen Gutierrez, CSUEB professor of English and program director of the Distinguished Writer Series, has high praise for Davidson’s fiction.
"Rob Davidson writes with a beguiling simplicity that is utterly devastating in the end," Gutierrez said. "He has that rare gift I look for in all short story writers in this day and age of bloated reputations and boring stories. He is readable, eminently readable, and he is meaningful, eminently meaningful."
Davidson was born in 1967 in Duluth, MN, and educated at Beloit College and Purdue University. From 1990-1992, he served in the U.S. Peace Corps in the Eastern Caribbean, where he taught secondary-level English language and literature.
In addition to “Farther Shore,” he is the author of, “The Master and the Dean: The Literary Criticism of Henry James and William Dean Howells,” and “Field Observations: Stories.”
Davidson's honors include winning the 2009 Camber Press Fiction Award; a 1997 AWP Intro Journals Project Award; and a Pushcart Prize nomination. He has twice been selected artist-in-residence at the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony in Woodstock, NY.
Davidson’s fiction, essays and interviews have appeared in ZYZZYVA, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Indiana Review, The Normal School, New Delta Review, and other publications. He currently is associate professor of English at California State University, Chico, where he teaches creative writing and American literature.
CSUEB welcomes persons with disabilities and will provide reasonable accommodation upon request. Please notify event sponsor in advance at 510-885-3151 if accommodation is needed. Campus parking is $2 per hour – payable at kiosk machines located in campus parking lots.