The Lindsay J. Cropper Memorial Writers Series: Lynn Freed & Ben Doller

Dessert reception and book signing to follow. Readings are free and open to the public.

Lynn Freed, Fiction Writer: Lynn Freed was born and grew up in Durban, South Africa. She came to New York as a graduate student, receiving her MA and PhD in English Literature from Columbia University. Freed is the author of six novels, a collection of short stories, and a collection of essays. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Atlantic Monthly, and other publications. It is widely translated, and is included in a number of anthologies. In 2011 Freed won a PEN/O. Henry Award for the short story, “Sunshine”, which is included in the PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2011. Prior to that, she had stories listed both in BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES and THE PEN/O.HENRY PRIZE SHORT STORY collections. She has won the Bay Area Book Reviewers’ Award for Fiction (HOMEGROUND), and has subsequently had four books nominated for the same award. Most of her books have appeared on The New York Times “Notable Books of the Year” list as well as on its “New & Noteworthy Paperback” list. In 2002, Freed was awarded the inaugural Katherine Anne Porter Award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and The Guggenheim Foundation and has been awarded residency fellowships supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, The Camargo Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Bogliasco Foundation, Civitella Ranieri, the Corporation of Yaddo, and the MacDowell Colony, and others. Freed is Professor of English at the University of California in Davis.

Ben Doller, Poet: In 1973, Ben Doller (previously Doyle) was born in Warsaw, New York. He completed his undergraduate education at the State University of New York at Oswego and West Virginia University. His first collection of poetry, Radio, Radio, (Louisiana State University Press, 2001) was selected by Susan Howe for the 2000 Walt Whitman Award. He received his MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he was awarded a Teaching-Writing Fellowship. His second collection of poems, FAQ, was published in 2009 by Ahsahta Press. His third collection, Dead Ahead, was published by Fence Books in 2010. Doller has taught at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, West Virginia University, Denison University, and was Distinguished Visiting Professor at Boise State University in 2007. He is co-editor of the Kuhl House Contemporary Poetry Series at the University of Iowa Press, and is vice editor and designer of 1913 a journal of forms and 1913 Press. He lives in San Diego with his wife, the poet Sandra Doller (formerly Miller).

Sponsored by The Cropper Center for Creative Writing