Date: 03/19/2007

The Campus Reading Program selection for 2007-2008 is "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere" by ZZ Packer. "Packer's debut collection reminds us that no stylistic tour de force ??? or authorial gamesmanship, or flights of language ??? can ground a story like a well-realized character. This is the old-time religion of storytelling, although Packer's prose supplies plenty of the edge and energy we expect from contemporary fiction. The people in the eight stories here form a constellation of young, black experience," the New York Times said. Packer will be on campus next spring as the 2008 Lurie Distinguished Chair in Creative Writing. Scot Guenter, professor of humanities, and Hyon Chu Yi-Baker, director of the MOSAIC Cross Cultural Center, will discuss incorporating Packer??s work into classes and programs at noon on Tuesday, March 20, in IRC 101. More.