Spring Break
Changing soldiers' swords into pens
Staff Report
Issue date: 11/6/09 Section: News
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"We are thrilled to be able to bring Tim O'Brien to our campus and to the community. He's simply a tremendous writer," said Dana Ringuette, chair of the Eastern English Department, in a press release. "And we are doubly fortunate because he has a keen interest in the work of James Jones."
The event is being held as part of the James Jones Symposium throughout today and Saturday.
O'Brien received the National Book Award in 1978 for his second novel, "Going After Cacciato," a Vietnam story about a soldier's deserting.
Today's lecture will look at National Book Award recipient Jones and his book "From Here to Eternity" influenced combat veterans to become writers themselves.
O'Brien has been called "the best American writer of his generation" from the San Francisco Chronicle, and The New York Times named "The Things They Carried" one of the 20 best books of the last quarter century.
O'Brien will sign books after his lecture with James Jones' daughter, author Kaylie Jones.
On Saturday, Kaylie Jones will read from her recently published memoir, "Lies My Mother Never Told Me." She will also discuss her work, "War at Home," about growing up in her father's shadow of his combat experiences and knowledge of war.
Registration for the free symposium begins at 8 a.m.
Saturday with coffee and donuts available and provided by the James Jones Literary Society in the Doudna Arts Fine Center Concourse.
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