Description

Hernán Diaz, winner of the 2018 VCU Cabell First Novelist Award for In the Distance, reads from his book. Afterward, he joins in a panel featuring Chris Fischbach, publisher at Coffee House Press, and Heather Cleary, a translator and writer and one of the founding editors of the digital, bilingual Buenos Aires Review. A book sale, signing and reception followed the presentation.

The event is free and open to all, but please register. Parking is available for a fee in the West Broad Street, West Main Street and West Cary Street parking decks. For special accommodations, or to register offline, please contact the VCU Libraries Events Office at (804) 828-0593.

Sponsors

The Cabell First Novelist Award is presented on behalf of VCU's M.F.A. in Creative Writing Program. Sponsors include the James Branch Cabell Library Associates, VCU Libraries, the VCU Department of English, Barnes & Noble @ VCU and the VCU College of Humanities and Sciences.

About the Book

In the Distance chronicles a young Swedish immigrant who finds himself penniless and alone in California. The boy travels east in search of his brother, moving on foot against the great current of emigrants pushing west. Driven back again and again, he meets naturalists, criminals, religious fanatics, swindlers, Indians and lawmen, and his exploits turn him into a legend. Diaz defies the conventions of historical fiction and genre, offering a probing look at the stereotypes that populate our past and a portrait of radical foreignness.

About the Author

Hernán Diaz is the author of Borges, Between History and Eternity, managing editor of RHM and associate director of the Hispanic Institute at Columbia University. He lives in New York.

Image: Hernán Diaz photo and In the Distance book cover, courtesy of Coffee House Press