CORVALLIS - Author Susan Choi, whose debut novel, "The Foreign Student," received widespread popular and critical acclaim last year, will read from her works on Friday, May 12, at Oregon State University. The event will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the rotunda (main floor) of The Valley Library at OSU. It is free and open to the public.

Choi's appearance at OSU is the final event in the university's Visiting Writers Series, sponsored by the Department of English.

"The Foreign Student" set in the 1950s, moves between war-ravaged Korea and the American South. The love story follows a young Korean university student scarred by war and the troubled daughter of a wealthy southern American family.

The novel has been called "haunting" and filled with "lyrical language." Time magazine praised Choi for writing "gracefully, insightfully, and with striking maturity."

Choi was born in Indiana and grew up in Texas. Her short fiction has appeared in various journals and magazines, including Epoch. During her brief career, she already has received the Steven Turner Award for a first novel, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Asian-American Literary Award for fiction. Now a resident of New York City, Choi is at work on her second novel.

Source: 

Marjorie Sandor, 541-737-1648

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