‘Montana 1948’ author, Larry Watson, to present reading at Simpson College

The acclaimed author of “Montana 1948,” “White Crosses,” and “Orchard,” Larry Watson, will present a reading as part of Simpson’s Poet and Writers Series 7 p.m., Thursday, October 6, 2005 in Jordan Lecture Hall, Carver Science Center.

Watson was born in 1947 in Rugby, North Dakota, and grew up in Bismarck. He received his BA and MA from the University of North Dakota, and his Ph.D. from the creative writing program at the University of Utah.  Watson has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (twice) and the Wisconsin Arts Board.

He is the author of the five novels: In A Dark Time, White Crosses, Laura, and Orchard, and the acclaimed, Montana 1948; the fiction collection Justice, and the chapbook of poetry Leaving Dakota.  Watson’s fiction has been published in more than a dozen foreign editions, and has received prizes and awards from Milkweed Press, Friends of American Writers, Mountain and Plains Booksellers Association, New York Public Library, Wisconsin Library Association, and Critics’ Choice.  Montana 1948 was nominated for the first IMPAC Dublin international literary prize. He has published short stories and poems in Gettysburg Review, New England Review, North American Review, Mississippi Review, and other journals and quarterlies.  His essays and book reviews have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Washington Post, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, and other periodicals.

Watson taught writing and literature at the University of Wisconsin/Stevens Point for twenty-five years.  He is presently a Visiting Professor of English at Marquette University.  He and his wife Susan live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  They have two daughters and two grandchildren.    

The public is cordially invited to attend the reading.