Kenny Fries opens Columbia Writers Series season

Kenny Fries. Photo: Michael R. Dekker

The Clark College Columbia Writers Series kicks off its 2017-2018 season with renowned poet, memoirist, and critic Kenny Fries. This event, which is free and open to the public, will be held on Tuesday, October 10, from 11:00 a.m. to noon in Penguin Union Building (PUB) room 258A on Clark College’s main campus.

Fries is perhaps best known for his memoir Body, Remember: A Memoir, which recounts his experiences as a disabled child growing up in an abusive Orthodox Jewish home and slowly coming to terms with his identity as a gay, disabled man. He has written two other memoirs, In the Province of the Gods and The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin’s Theory, this last the winner of the Outstanding Book Award from the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights.  He is the editor of Staring Back:  The Disability Experience from the Inside Out and the author of the libretto for The Memory Stone, an opera commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera.  His books of poems include Anesthesia, Desert Walking, and In the Gardens of Japan. He teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Goddard College.

The Columbia Writers Series was launched at Clark College in 1988, bringing local, national and international authors to the college and the region. This year’s lineup of authors includes, besides Fries:

Fall

• October 30: Aimee Bender, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

Winter

• February 15, 2018: Cheston Knapp, editor of Tin House magazine and author of Up Up, Down Down, which will appear in February 2018

Spring

• May 14, 2018: Roger Reeves, Pushcart Prize-winning poet
• May 17, 2018: Kate Berube, children’s book author and illustrator

Information about the Columbia Writers Series is available at www.clark.edu/cc/cws.

This event is held on Clark College’s main campus at 1933 Ft. Vancouver Way. Directions and maps are available online. Individuals who need accommodation due to a disability in order to fully participate in this event should contact Clark College’s Disability Support Services (DSS) Office at 360-992-2314 or 360-991-0901 (VP). The DSS office is located in room 013 in Clark’s Penguin Union Building.