"A new Beattie is almost like a fresh bulletin from the front," wrote Margaret Atwood in The New York Times about Ann Beattie's latest short story collection, The Burning House, honored by the Times as one of the twelve Best- Books of 1982. "We snatch it up, eager to know what's happening out there on the edge of that shifting and dubious no man's land known as interpersonal relations." Perhaps no other American writes about contemporary love with such brutal honesty as she. Her power of description is magnificent. As her many readers already know, Beattie is an incomparable stylist; "no one is better at the plangent detail, at evoking the floating, unreal ambiance of grief." Atwood continues, "If Miss Beattie were a ballerina, you could sell tickets to the warm-ups."

Beattie is also the author of two other story collections, Distortions and Secrets and Surprises, and two novels, Chilly Scenes of Winter and Falling in Place. Her work appears frequently in The New Yorker.

In addition to her Monday evening fiction reading, Beattie will also present a Tuesday afternoon talk on "Writing as an Unconscious Process" and answer questions from the audience. [extracted from 1983 brochure]

6th Annual Literary Festival