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CORVALLIS, Ore. – Essayist Melissa Febos will read at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 17, in the Valley Library Rotunda on the Oregon State University campus in Corvallis. A question-and-answer session and book signing will follow.

Febos is the author of the memoir “Whip Smart” and the essay collection “Abandon Me.” “Abandon Me” was a Lambda Literary Award finalist, a Publishing Triangle Finalist, an Indie Next Pick and widely named a best book of 2017.

Febos’ writing has also appeared in Tin House, Granta, The Believer, The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, The Guardian and Vogue.

She is the inaugural winner of the Jean Córdova Nonfiction Award from Lambda Literary and the recipient of the 2017 Sarah Verdone Writing Award from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Her essays have earned prizes from Prairie Schooner, Story Quarterly and The Center for Women Writers at Salem College.

She is also the recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, The Barbara Deming Memorial Foundation, The BAU Institute, Ragdale and The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

Febos is an associate professor of creative writing at Monmouth University and serves on the board of directors for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts.

The reading is part of the 2018-2019 Visiting Writers Series, which brings nationally acclaimed writers to Oregon State University. This series is sponsored by the MFA Program in Creative Writing at OSU, with support from the OSU Libraries and Press, the OSU 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. The Valley Library is located at 201 SW Waldo Place, Corvallis.