Tobias Wolff

The author of Old School, Tobias Wolff, discusses our Big Read selection and his literary career - including his new short story fiction compilation Our Story Begins - with Angela Elam of New Letters on the Air, who will record the conversation before a live audience for later broadcast. One of the few ... (more)contemporary writers with an assured spot in literary history, Wolff won the PEN/Faulkner Award as well as three O. Henry Awards. He is also a two-time finalist for the National Book Award. Contact KCPL for more information about attending.

AUTHOR TOBIAS WOLFF TO APPEAR AT THE HIGHLAND PARK PUBLIC LIBRARY

Award-winning author Tobias Wolff, whose book “The Barracks Thief” has been selected as the One Book, One Highland Park featured title, will appear at the Highland Park Public Library on Tuesday, July 15, at 7 p.m. Mr. Wolff ... (more)will read from “The Barracks Thief” and discuss his writing. A question and answer session and book signing will follow the program.

Wolff’s “The Barracks Thief,” the summer title for the One Book One Highland Park community-wide read program, is a brief yet powerful tale of three young paratroopers waiting to be shipped out to Vietnam. The award-winning novella tells the story of the three young men who share an experience that affects each of them in profoundly different ways and is an insightful examination of compassion, perspective and tolerance. Discussions of the “Barracks Thief” are scheduled at the Highland Park Public Library and Borders during the month of July. And, to enhance the experience of reading the “Barracks Thief,” Mr. Wolff will speak about the book.

“The Barracks Thief” is the second title of the One Book, One Highland Park community-wide read program, a joint project with The City of Highland Park, the Highland Park Public Library and Highland Park Borders Books & Music. The program was initiated this spring to broaden and deepen an appreciation of reading and compel friends, family and neighbors to share their experience while reading the same book. The project seeks to engage the community in dialogue and bring them together by promoting tolerance and understanding about different points of view. The initial One Book, One Highland Park title for the community-wide read was “Maus: A Survivor’s Tale,” by Art Spiegelman.

In addition to “The Barracks Thief,” Wolff’s books include the memoirs “This Boy’s Life” and “In Pharaoh’s Army: Memories of the Lost War;” the novel “Old School;” and four collections of short stories, “In the Garden of the North American Martyrs,” Back in the World,” “The Night in Question,” and most recently, “Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories.” He has also edited several anthologies. Wolff’s work has been translated widely and has received numerous awards including the PEN/Faulkner Award, The Los Angeles Times Book Prize, both the PEN/Malamud and the Rea Award for Excellence in the Short Story, and the Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Wolff is the Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor of English at Stanford.

“An Evening with Tobias Wolff” at the Highland Park Public Library is free and open to the public, but reservations are requested. The program begins at 7 p.m. and will conclude with a book signing of Mr. Wolff’s work. The program is also presented by the City of Highland Park and the Highland Park Borders Books & Music. To reserve a seat, call (847) 432-1573, ext. 124.

The Highland Park Public Library strives to provide the highest quality Library services to community members for life-long learning, cultural enrichment, and enjoyment. The Highland Park Public Library is located at 494 Laurel Avenue, Highland Park. For more information, please call (847) 432-0216.

Admission €10.00/€8.00. "At its best, the short story form is an elegant and precise distillation of the human experience. This exclusive double-header sees two of its most celebrated exponents come together in one unmissable event."

The author reads from and signs his book. 202-364-1919 (Book World, The Washington Post)

In the 1980’s, along with his contemporaries Raymond Carver and Andres Dubus, Tobias Wolff was at the core of the renaissance of the short story. Later he modernized the memoir with his bestselling childhood saga, This Boy’s Life. With a new collection compiling stories both old and new, Tobias Wolff ... (more)proves why he is still one of today's most vital voices.

Tobias Wolff is one of our great contemporary masters of the short story. Wolff is best known for his two dazzling memoirs — This Boy’s Life, the story of his precarious childhood in a small town north of Seattle which was made into a movie starring Ellen Barkin and Robert De Niro; and In Pharaoh’s ... (more)Army, about his reluctant stint as an officer in the Special Forces in Vietnam where "pharaoh’s chariots (were) engulfed; his horsemen confused; and all his magnificence dismayed." It is considered to be one of the best literary renderings of that murky conflagration to date. We will be performing stories from his newest collection Our Story Begins, and the evening will include a reading by Mr. Wolff.