Award-Winning Novelist To Speak at VCU

By Tom Gresham

Karen Fisher, whose debut novel attracted widespread critical acclaim, will accept the Fifth Annual VCU First Novelist Award this week at Virginia Commonwealth University and participate in a forum discussion on representations of the American West in contemporary fiction.

The VCU First Novelist Forum will be held on Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. in the Richmond Salons of the VCU Student Commons, 907 Floyd Ave. Fisher will read from her novel, "A Sudden Country," before the forum discussion. A reception will follow the forum. The event is free and open to the public.

Fisher will be joined on the forum panel by Christina Ward, her literary agent; Susann Cokal, a novelist and assistant professor of English at VCU; and Catherine Ingrassia, an associate dean in VCU's College of Humanities and Sciences whose academic focus includes the role of women in literature. The panelists also will discuss the business of writing, publishing and selling a first novel.

Fisher's novel, "A Sudden Country," follows a family's migration on the Oregon Trail in 1847. It received glowing reviews from such publications as the New Yorker, People and Entertainment Weekly. In addition to earning Fisher the VCU First Novelist Award, "A Sudden Country" was also the winner of the Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award and was a finalist for both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Los Angeles Times First Fiction Award.

Fisher has worked as a teacher, wrangler, farmer and carpenter. She now lives with her husband and their three children on an island in the Puget Sound.

The First Novelist Award is given annually to celebrate a rising new talent in the literary world who has successfully published a debut novel during the previous calendar year. The winner receives a $1,000 honorarium and an all-expenses paid trip to Richmond. The award celebrates VCU's yearlong novel workshop.

For more information about the VCU First Novelist Award, visit www.firstnovelist.vcu.edu or email Andrew Blossom at firstnovel@vcu.edu.