Acclaimed Debut Novelist to Speak at VCU

By Tom Gresham

Travis Holland, whose debut novel attracted widespread critical acclaim, will accept the Seventh Annual VCU First Novelist Award this week at Virginia Commonwealth University and participate in a forum discussion about the journey of his debut novel, “The Archivist’s Story,” from concept to publication to critical acclaim.

The VCU Cabell First Novelist Forum will be held on Friday, Nov. 14, at 7 p.m. in the Richmond Salons of the VCU Student Commons, 907 Floyd Ave. Holland will read from “The Archivist’s Story” before the forum discussion. A book signing and reception immediately follow. The event is free and open to the public.

Holland will appear with his agent, Amy Williams, and his editor, Susan Kamil, vice president of Dial Press. Valley Haggard, book editor for Style Weekly, will moderate.

A question-and-answer session will be held earlier in the day from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Cabell Room of the James Branch Cabell Library, 901 Park Avenue.

“The Archivist’s Story,” published in June 2007 by The Dial Press, centers on Pavel, a former teacher who works in the Lubyanka prison archives in Moscow in 1939. Pavel prepares manuscripts for destruction in the service of Stalin-era limits on free expression. Then he comes across an unsigned manuscript apparently written by the famed author Isaac Babel, who has been imprisoned at Lubyanka. Pavel attempts to salvage the work, and later an additional manuscript, for posterity.

The VCU Cabell First Novelist Award celebrates the VCU MFA in Creative Writing Program’s year-long novel workshop – the first in the nation and still one of the few in existence. The winning author receives a $5,000 cash prize and an all-expenses paid trip to Richmond.

For more information about the First Novelist Award, visit http://www.firstnovelist.vcu.edu/.