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CORVALLIS, Ore. – Susan Jackson Rodgers, a fiction writer and associate professor of creative writing at Oregon State University, will read from her work at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 22, in the Lab Theatre in Withycombe Hall. A question-and-answer session and book signing will follow.

Rodgers’ new novel, “This Must Be the Place,” is the coming-of-age story of a young woman on a cross-country road trip in 1983. The novel was published in August by Switchgrass Books, an imprint of Northern Illinois University Press. 

Rodgers’ previous books include two short story collections, “The Trouble With You Is,” and “Ex-Boyfriend on Aisle 6.” Her fiction has also appeared in journals such as New England Review, North American Review, Glimmer Train, Beloit Fiction Journal, Quick Fiction, Colorado Review and Prairie Schooner. Rodgers earned first place in the 2002 Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition and is the recipient of two Kansas Arts Commission Fellowships and two Pushcart Prize Special Mentions.

Rodgers earned her master’s degree at Kansas State University and her master of fine arts at Bennington College. She taught at Kansas State for many years and now teaches creative writing and literature in OSU’s School of Writing, Literature and Film, where she also directs the MFA program in creative writing. 

This reading is part of the 2017-2018 Literary Northwest Series, which brings accomplished writers from the Pacific Northwest to OSU. This series is sponsored by the MFA program in creative writing, with support from the OSU Libraries and Press, the School of Writing, Literature, and Film, the College of Liberal Arts, Kathy Brisker and Tim Steele and Grass Roots Books and Music.

The event is free and open to the public. Withycombe Hall is located at 2921 S.W. Campus Way, Corvallis.