Memoirist, novelist, poet and editor Jill Bialosky will speak at Manhattan College on Oct. 8 as a part of the College’s Major Authors Reading Series (M.A.R.S.). Bialosky is the author of The New York Times bestseller History of a Suicide: My Sister’s Unfinished Life (2011).
The event will be held at 4:30 p.m. in Hayden Hall, room 100. It is free and open to the public. M.A.R.S. is co-sponsored by the College’s English department and the School of Arts, in cooperation with the Women and Gender Studies program this semester.
Bialosky’s collection of poems include Intruder (2008), Subterranean (2001) and The End of Desire (1997), and she is the author of the two novels House Under Snow (2002) and The Life Room (2007). Bialosky also co-authored the anthology Wanting A Child in 1998 with Helen Schulman.
Time Magazine called History of a Suicide: My Sister’s Unfinished Life, “Extraordinarily useful … a source of solace and understanding.” The Los Angeles Times described her Intruder as “sharply perceptive, reminding readers about the way life forces us to our knees while restoring us to our true selves.”
Recognized for her various publications, Bialosky is a recipient of the Elliott Coleman Award in Poetry. Her poems and essays have also appeared in The New Yorker, O Magazine and American Poetry Review, among other publications.
Now in its eighth consecutive semester, the M.A.R.S. series is designed to engage and expose students to contemporary literature. Since the series launched in 2010, it has brought several notable writers to campus for readings and book signings. They include: The New York Times Sunday Book Review Editors’ Choice winners Josh Weil and Honor Moore; Pulitzer Prize winners Junot Diaz, Jennifer Egan and Claudia Emerson; National Book Award finalist Joshua Ferris; essayist Phillip Lopate; Marie Howe, the current Poet Laureate of New York state; and poet Iain Haley Pollock, winner of the 2010 Cave Canem Poetry Prize.
The fall semester of M.A.R.S. will conclude with distinguished poet and critic, Alicia Ostriker on Nov. 14 at 5 p.m.
For more information about M.A.R.S., please contact Adam Koehler, assistant professor of English, at (718) 862-7546 or adam.koehler@manhattan.edu; or Dominika Wrozynski, assistant professor of English, at (718) 862-7921 or dominika.wrozynski@manhattan.edu.