Short Fiction Author Peter Markus Reads at Alma
Author Peter Markus, described as a “linguistic dynamo,” will read
from his published works at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14 at the Alma
College Library.
Admission is free and open to the public.
Markus is the author of three books of short fiction: Good, Brother, The Moon Is a Lighthouse and The Singing Fish. His stories have appeared in more than 40 journals, including the Massachusetts Review, Black Warrior Review, Northwest Review, Quarterly West, Chicago Review and Denver Quarterly.
“Peter Markus takes words like mud, fish, moon, river and brother and
transforms them into the never-before in his stories,” says John
Rybicki, visiting assistant professor of English at Alma College. “He
is a linguistic dynamo.”
Markus blends prose and poetry in his writings, says Rybicki.
“He creates a kind of mantra of language in his prose that makes his
stories ring as acoustically as any poem,” says Rybicki. “He writes
from a stark, urban landscape where things like backyard telephone
poles become gigantic fishing poles covered with fish heads.
“The main characters in his stories are two brothers who live in a
dirty river town. As dark, rustic and depressing as this town is to
their parents, it is a resplendent playground for these boys,” says
Rybicki.
Markus has been the writer-in-residence at the Interlochen Arts
Academy. He also has served on the faculty of the Gotham Writers’
Workshop in New York City and as a guest lecturer at the School of the
Art Institute of Chicago. He currently is the senior writer of the
InsideOut Literary Arts Project, which sends writers into the public
schools of Detroit.
Posted: Mon, November 5th, 2007 at 8:11AM
