Behrend

Author Heather Slomski to read at Penn State Behrend

Behrend alumna returns for Creative Writers Reading Series on Oct. 15

Author and Penn State Behrend alumna Heather Slomski will be the first to admit that a great writing collection is much like Rome: it’s not built overnight.

“Not everything I wrote fit together,” said Slomski, an Erie native who earned her bachelor of arts in English with an emphasis in creative writing in 2003. “It actually took me a long time to feel as if I had a finished manuscript.”

But once her manuscript came together, the results were impressive. The book, “The Lovers Set Down Their Spoons,” was the recipient of the 2014 Iowa Short Fiction Award, a national award given to a first collection of fiction in English and administered through the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Slomski will read excerpts from that collection on Oct. 15 when the 2015-16 edition of the Creative Writers Reading Series resumes at Penn State Behrend. Her 6 p.m. reading and the reception that will precede it are free and open to the public. Both events will be held in the Larry and Kathryn Smith Chapel.

“Slomski is a writer’s writer, with a gift for lyrical prose, clever plotting, and significant detail that reveals depth of character,” a 2014 Kirkus Review read.

Slomski has had stories published in TriQuarterly, American Letters & Commentary, Columbia: A Journal of Literature & Art, The Normal School and other journals. She currently lives in Minnesota with her husband and son and teaches writing at Concordia College.

The Creative Writers Reading Series is produced by Penn State Behrend’s B.F.A. in Creative Writing degree program with support from the Clarence A. and Eugenie Baumann Smith Fund. For additional information, call 814-898-6108 or visit behrend.psu.edu/readings.

Penn State Behrend alumna Heather Slomski will read excerpts from her book, “The Lovers Set Down Their Spoons,” when the Creative Writers Reading Series returns to the college on Thursday, Oct. 15. Credit: Penn State Behrend / Penn StateCreative Commons

Last Updated September 30, 2015

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