Stanford Fiction Writers in Conversation: An Evening with Lynn Stegner

This is an Archive of a Past Event

SERIES: STANFORD FICTION WRITERS IN CONVERSATION

Each program in this series will bring to center stage a distinguished author from the Stanford community. We will discuss a fiction writer’s process—from the genesis of an idea, to the nuts and bolts of the prose’s inner workings, to the editing and publication process—and engage the local community in a lively question-and-answer session. The program will be hosted by Sara Houghteling, former Nancy Packer Lecturer in Continuing Studies.

An Evening with Lynn Stegner

Please join us for an evening with one of Stanford Continuing Studies’ most beloved teachers, Lynn Stegner, as she discusses her sixth book, the spellbinding short story collection For All the Obvious Reasons. These stories are rendered with exquisite, lyrical detail and page-turning electricity: a bride makes the disastrous decision to hitchhike; an affluent New Yorker becomes a hoarder to escape a future he cannot bear to accept; a child dies in a miasma of sibling resentments; a construction worker in Tahoe and a bereaved young neighbor together find a way to be in a broken world. Stegner pulls us from our own worlds into her own—from the wild rivers of British Columbia to the concrete jungle of Manhattan, and from the ’70s through Reagan’s presidential election to today—and on each page, she sounds the vibrant, sometimes anguished, music that composes the human heart.

Over the course of the evening, Stegner will discuss the essential tools of the writer’s craft—voice, plot, structure, point of view—and share her personal insights into the process of writing about nature and place. Avid readers and aspiring writers alike will gain fresh insights into the art of fiction during this engaging discussion with one of this generation’s finest literary voices and most esteemed teachers.


Lynn Stegner, Author

Lynn Stegner is the author of three novels, a collection of novellas, and various stories and essays. Her work has received numerous awards including the Faulkner Award for Best Novel (Because a Fire Was in My Head)—which was also a New York TimesEditor’s Choice, a Book Sense Pick, and a Literary Ventures Selection. Stegner is also the author of the extended critical introduction to her father-in-law’s short fiction, Collected Stories of Wallace Stegner, as well as that of the Penguin edition Wallace Stegner: On Teaching and Writing Fiction, and a frequent collaborator with conservation biologists and paleontologists. Over the years, fellowships from the NEA, the Fulbright Society, and the Western States Arts Council have recognized the literary distinction of her work. She teaches novel and fiction writing for Stanford Continuing Studies. 


Sara Houghteling, Former Nancy Packer Lecturer in Continuing Studies

Sara Houghteling is the author of Pictures at an Exhibition, a New York Times Editors’ Choice, a San Francisco Chronicle Best of 2009 Book, and a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. She has received a Fulbright Scholarship, an NEA Fellowship, a Camargo Fellowship, the Ribalow Prize, and the Wallant Award. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, Narrative, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Houghteling received an MFA from the University of Michigan.