Tonight, people besides English majors can get excited about an author visiting the University -- the Peters Rushton Bequest to the Department of English is sponsoring a reading by novelist Chang-Rae Lee at the University Bookstore at 8 p.m.
Lee is widely recognized as one of the rising stars of the Asian-American literary scene.
"He has this way of bringing you into other cultures through his language," said Lisa Russ Spaar, director of the English Department's creative writing program. "It's very exciting."
Lee is a second-generation Korean American who attended Yale and then the University of Oregon, where he earned an MFA in writing.
His first novel, "Native Speaker," won the PEN/Hemingway Award and the American Book Award. His second, "A Gesture Life," also earned critical acclaim.
In addition, The New Yorker magazine named Lee one of the top 20 American writers under 40 years old. He currently holds a position as professor of fiction in the Princeton University creative writing program.
The University was interested in hiring Lee before he accepted his Princeton position, Spaar said. However, Lee declined the opening.
His wife "had just had a new baby, and in retrospect, he was also probably being courted by Princeton," Spaar said. "But it seemed to work out well for everyone, because we're very pleased with the faculty member we hired and he seems to be happy up there."
English Prof. Stephen Cushman, who is steward of the Peters Rushton Bequest, spearheaded the effort to bring Lee to the University for a reading.
He got in touch with Lee two years ago after first reading his work.
"He wasn't free at the time," Cushman said. "I told him, 'Well, if you ever want to come, give me a call.' And he gave me a call this summer."
Cushman anticipates that Lee will read an excerpt from a new book.
"He's really perfected a kind of clear, simple style that can be traced back to Hemingway and Cheever," Cushman said. "This is an important chance to hear a really up-and-coming writer."
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