Author Eric Freeze to read at Penn State Behrend on Sept. 21

Fiction author’s work emphasizes strong characters
Eric Freeze will read excerpts from “Invisible Men” on Thursday, Sept. 21, when the 2017-18 edition of the Creative Writers Reading Series kicks off at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College.

Eric Freeze will read excerpts from “Invisible Men” on Thursday, Sept. 21, when the 2017-18 edition of the Creative Writers Reading Series kicks off at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College.

Credit: Courtesy of Eric Freeze

ERIE, Pa. — In great literature, some of the best characters are the complicated ones. Author Eric Freeze knows this well.

“The stories in Freeze’s collections do what great fiction is supposed to do for us as readers. We sidle up next to the characters, and we’re not sure whether to sympathize with them or revile them,” wrote Sejal Patel in a Carve Magazine review of Freeze’s short story collection “Invisible Men.” “Reconciliation is another prominent theme in Freeze’s work in the sense that his characters seek reconciliation but fail.”

Freeze will read excerpts from “Invisible Men” on Thursday, Sept. 21, when the 2017-18 edition of the Creative Writers Reading Series kicks off at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. His 6 p.m. reading and the reception preceding it are free and open to the public. Both events will be held in the Larry and Kathryn Smith Chapel.

“Invisible Men,” published in 2016, is Freeze’s second short story collection. His first, “Dominant Traits,” was a 2012 finalist for the Plains Book Award. He also recently received a Canada Council grant to work on a novel.

Freeze teaches creative writing at Wabash College and in Butler University’s master of fine arts program. In addition to his short story collections, he authored the creative nonfiction collection “Hemingway on a Bike.” His work also has been published in Boston Review, Harvard Review and The Southern Review.

The Creative Writers Reading Series is produced by Penn State Behrend’s B.F.A. in Creative Writing degree program with support from the Clarence A. and Eugenie Baumann Smith Fund. For additional information, call 814-898-6108 or visit behrend.psu.edu/readings.

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