Award-winning Sci Fi Writer Returns to Read
Professor of English John Kessel says Andy Duncan’s stories are great on the page. “But actually, he is one of the very best performers of his own fiction – maybe the very best I have ever heard,” Kessel says of his former student.
That’s high praise from Kessel, who has earned an international reputation as a master of science fiction. Kessel, who teaches science fiction in NC State’s MFA in Creative Writing program, says Duncan “has a wonderful sense of humor” and produces “very different stories … but they are great stories.”
Andy Duncan (MA, English ’95) returns to campus on September 12, 2012, to read from his work.
Duncan’s stories, including his newest fiction collection, The Pottawatomie Giant and Other Stories, often deal with themes of the American south. He has won two World Fantasy Awards and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best science fiction story of the year. He has been nominated multiple times for the Hugo, Nebula, Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson awards. His fiction has been featured in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
“Not all good writers are good storytellers,” Kessel says. “Andy is a great storyteller. You think you are reading a funny story, and you are, but then he pulls the rug out from under you and you realize he has shown you something profound about people and the world.”
When Duncan is not writing, he reports to work as a faculty member in the English department at Frostburg State University in Maryland. He also teaches seminars in 21st century science fiction and fantasy in the Honors College of the University of Alabama.
Andy Duncan will read from his stories at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, in the Studio Theater in Thompson Hall on the NC State campus. The event is free and open to the public.
By Kristie Demers, CHASS Communication Intern
Read the NC State Alumni Association’s recent interview with Andy Duncan.
