Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture

Carver Reading Series Continues with Novelist Jenny Offill Feb. 11

Thursday, February 5, 2015, By Renée K. Gadoua
Share
College of Arts and SciencesEventsspeakers

The Raymond Carver Reading Series in the College of Arts and Sciences continues with a visit by award-winning novelist Jenny Offill. On Wednesday, Feb. 11, she will participate in a Q&A session at 3:45 p.m., followed by an author reading at 5:30 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public and take place in Gifford Auditorium.

Jenny Offill

Jenny Offill

The Carver series is organized and presented by the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing, in conjunction with the English department’s “Living Writers” course. For more information, call 315-443-2174.

The Len and Elise Elman Visiting Writer, Offill is the author of “Dept. of Speculation” (Random House, 2014), named one of last year’s 10 Best Books by The New York Times Book Review. The novel has been characterized as a “slender and cannily paced” portrait of a troubled marriage. “The wife,” as the protagonist is known, balances her passion for writing with raising a daughter, almost singlehandedly. In the process, she learns more about herself by studying science; mythology; Arabic, Japanese and Lebanese proverbs; and Buddhism.

“I think every person—man or woman—who tries to make art faces this, to some extent,” Offill told the Los Angeles Times. “To make something good requires an obsessiveness that is profoundly anti-social.”

With its kaleidoscopic view of a heroine’s life, “Dept. of Speculation” has been compared to “Speedboat” (1976), by Renata Adler and to “Sleepless Nights” (1979), by the late Elizabeth Hardwick. “Part elegy and part primal scream, it’s a profound and unexpectedly buoyant performance,” The New York Times says of Offill’s novel.

This is not the first time Offill has made headlines. Her debut novel, “Last Things” (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1999), was chosen as a notable or best book of the year by The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Village Voice and The Guardian. It also was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times First Book Award.

Offill also has co-edited two anthologies of literary essays and has written several picture books. She teaches creative writing at Columbia University, Brooklyn College and Queens University of Charlotte (North Carolina).

Upcoming readers in the Carver series—named for the great fiction writer who taught at Syracuse in the 1980s—are Bridget Lowe G’09 (Feb. 25), E.C. Osondu G’07 (March 25), Ron Padgett (April 1) and Ishion Hutchinson (April 22).

  • Author

Renée K. Gadoua

  • Recent
  • NSF I-Corps Semiconductor and Microelectronics Free Virtual Course Being Offered
    Wednesday, July 16, 2025, By Cristina Hatem
  • Jianshun ‘Jensen’ Zhang Named Interim Department Chair of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
    Wednesday, July 16, 2025, By Emma Ertinger
  • Traugott Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Bing Dong to Present at Prestigious AI Conference
    Wednesday, July 16, 2025, By Emma Ertinger
  • Lender Center Researcher Studies Veterans’ Post-Service Lives, Global Conflict Dynamics
    Tuesday, July 15, 2025, By Diane Stirling
  • Maxwell’s Robert Rubinstein Honored With 2025 Wasserstrom Prize for Graduate Teaching
    Tuesday, July 15, 2025, By News Staff

More In Arts & Culture

Vintage Over Digital: Alumnus Dan Cohen’s Voyager CD Bag Merges Music and Fashion

Bucking the trend of streaming music platforms and contrary to what one might expect of a member of his generation, musician Dan Cohen ’25 prefers listening to his favorite artists on compact disc (CD) and record players. His research and…

VPA Announces New Drama Department Chair

The College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) has appointed Eleanor Holdridge as the new chair of the Department of Drama effective July 1. Holdridge comes to Syracuse University from the Catholic University of America, where she served as professor…

Swinging Into Summer: Syracuse International Jazz Fest Returns With Star Power, Student Talent and a Soulful Campus Finale

Get ready for the sweet summer sounds of jazz in the city and on campus. The University is again a sponsor of the Syracuse International Jazz Fest, a five-day celebration of world-class jazz music and community spirit, taking place June…

Tiffany Xu Named Harry der Boghosian Fellow for 2025-26

The School of Architecture has announced that architect Tiffany Xu is the Harry der Boghosian Fellow for 2025–26. Xu will succeed current fellow, Erin Cuevas, and become the tenth fellow at the school. The Boghosian Fellowship at the School of…

Syracuse Stage Concludes 2024-25 Season With ‘The National Pastime’

Syracuse Stage concludes its 2024-25 season with the world premiere production of “The National Pastime,” a provocative psychological thriller about state secrets, sonic weaponry, stolen baseball signs and the father and son relationship in the middle of it all. Written…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.