Author to explore the world of literature

By RACHEL DE CAMP

Author Jonathan Franzen, the winner of the 2001 National Book Award, will give a lecture Friday at 7 p.m. in the Alice Peters Auditorium. The event is free to the public.

The event introduces the Visitor Writing Series, which was created by the English department and the student organization San Joaquin Literary Association. The series was formed to bring writers and literary figures from across the publishing world that emphasize and encourages the importance of literatureto the local community.

Franzen’s “The Correc-tions,” a novel published in 2001, is a funny yet heartbreaking story that contains an old-fashioned comic tragedy of a Midwest American family losing its grip in an age of easy fixes. Shortly after the book was published, it won the National Book Award, and Franzen was named one of the 20 writers for the 21st Century by The New Yorker magazine.

That same year, Franzen gained notoriety when he declined Oprah Winfrey’s offer to name “The Corrections” as her book of the month selection. He worried about the way her endorsement would affect his reputation as a literary writer, rather than a popular one.

Franzen also wrote two other novels, 1998’s “The Twenty-Seventh City” and 1992’s “Strong Motion,” along with an assortment of essays. And he still writes frequently for the New Yorker.