Author Cristina García to read from new novel during Penn State Behrend visit

Creative Writers Reading Series returns Oct. 5

ERIE, Pa. — As a child, Cristina García kept regular diaries. Even then, she knew the path her life would take.

“Very early on, (I knew I wanted to write),” García said in 2014 interview. “I got a sense of the power of the word.”

García has continued to illustrate the power of the written word by covering important topics in her novels. She’s written a dark, satirical portrait of Fidel Castro. She’s also covered key events like the Vietnam War and World War II.

The award-winning novelist and journalist will read excerpts from her new novel “Here in Berlin” on Thursday, Oct. 5, when the 2017-18 edition of the Creative Writers Reading Series returns to Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. Her 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.

“Here in Berlin,” which will be released Oct. 10, is García’s seventh novel and serves as a portrait of the city and its inhabitants following World War II. Her first novel, “Dreaming in Cuba,” was released in 1992 and was a finalist for the National Book Award.

García is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers’ Award and a Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University. She recently completed her tenure as university chair in creative writing at Texas State University-San Marcos and as visiting professor at the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas-Austin.

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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