MSU welcomes this year鈥檚 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction recipient for visiting writers series
Contact: Sarah Nicholas
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擳he winner of the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction鈥攐ne of the most prestigious U.S. literary honors鈥攎akes an appearance at 花秀直播 State next month for the university鈥檚 Price Caldwell Visiting Writers Series.
Celebrated fiction writer Claire Jim茅nez speaks at MSU Sept. 9, reading from the novel that garnered her the prize鈥斺淲hat Happened to Ruthy Ramirez鈥濃攁 2023 Grand Central Publishing book. Free and open to all, the event is at 5:30 p.m. in Mitchell Memorial Library鈥檚 John Grisham Room, with a question-and-answer session and book signing following.
鈥淒r. Jim茅nez鈥檚 latest work examines the intersection of identity and trauma, highlighting the intricacy and resilience involved in the journey of healing and self-discovery,鈥 said MSU assistant professor of English Olufunke Ogundimu of the book that revolves around the disappearance of a Puerto Rican teenager who vanished without a trace as a child. 鈥淚t really explores how families come through tough times and find themselves again.鈥
In addition to her award-winning novel, Jim茅nez is the author of the short story collection 鈥淪taten Island Stories,鈥 a 2019 Johns Hopkins University Press publication that won the Hornblower Award from the New York Society Library. A native of Brooklyn and Staten Island, Newy York, she is a faculty member at the University of South Carolina. Jim茅nez holds an Masters of Fine Arts from Vanderbilt University and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Nebraska鈥揕incoln.
The Price Caldwell Visiting Writers Series, sponsored by the MSU Department of English, was established through an endowment from Alice Carol Caldwell and family as a memorial to her late husband, an MSU English professor who died in 2015. Caldwell was the founder and director of the university鈥檚 creative writing program and served as president and vice president of the Southern Literary Festival organization.
For further information about Jim茅nez鈥檚 visit, contact Becky Hagenston, MSU Department of English director of creative writing, at bhagenston@english.msstate.edu.
MSU鈥檚 College of Arts and Sciences and Department of English are online at and .
花秀直播 State University is taking care of what matters. Learn more at聽.