Francine Prose is the acclaimed author of 11 novels,
as well as collections of short stories and novellas,
and has published three works of translation.
She's also a highly regarded essayist and art critic,
published regularly in Harper's and The Wall Street Journal--
Excuse me, I'm nervous--
among other publications.
Essays such as "Scent of a Woman's Ink,"
"Are Women Writers Really Inferior?" and a "Wasteland
of One's Own" about the dumbed-down quality
of media geared towards women have spurred vigorous debate.
She's written several books for children,
as well as a young adult novel, After, about teens who,
when in the chillingly paranoid time following a school
shooting, see more than just their civil rights vanish.
Her recent books include two non-fiction works, The Lives
of the Muses, a biographical exploration of nine women
and their complex relationships with the artists they inspired.
And Gluttony, a provocative discourse
on eating and religion.
Her most recent adult novel, Blue Angel,
charts the downfall of creative writing professor Ted Swenson
as he blunders into an affair with a young student
at the peak of tension over sexual harassment claims.
It was hailed for its satiric skewering
of political correctness and academia.
And was a finalist for the National Book Award.
So given the material in Blue Angel,
perhaps it's not surprising that Prose
has taught at several of the country's
premier creative writing programs.
She is now on the faculty of the New School University MFA
Program in New York City.
In fact, some years ago, she taught in the creative writing
program here at the University of Arizona.
And this part of the world has surfaced
in some of her fiction.
In her novel, Hunters and Gatherers, for example,
a bickering group of East Coast goddess worshippers
get their comeuppance when they make a pilgrimage
to the desert outside Tucson for a crash
course in Native American spirituality.
Prose's forthcoming novel, A Changed Man,
due out this spring, explores questions
of redemption and change as it tells
the story of Vincent Nolan, a 32-year-old ex-skinhead who
becomes the willing pawn of a human rights
organization in its campaign to raise money and resurrect
its waning profile.
Her fiction is often a place where
her characters' many pretensions and hypocrisies are challenged.
Yet Prose's contrarian nature cuts both ways.
As much as she is known for her incisive wit,
she is lauded for treating her characters
with compassion and tenderness.
The effect is that we the readers
do not judge her characters, but understand and identify
with them.
We are very pleased that Francine Prose is here
to speak with us tonight.
Please welcome Francine Prose.
[APPLAUSE]