On Tuesday, April 17th, The Ordinary Evening Reading Series proudly presents two fiction writers, New Haven native Chandra Prasad and O. Henry-award winning novelist Sheila Kohler. As always, the reading will start at 7 PM in the Mermaid Room, downstairs at the Anchor Bar, 272 College St. in New Haven.
Chandra Prasad's writing explores themes of identity and belonging. Inspired by lore and legend, her book Death of a Circus is a dark tale that centers around a young man who dreams of making a name for himself as a high-wire walker. Tom Perrotta says it is “narrated with Dickensian verve, a keen eye for historical detail, and lots of heart.” Prasad is the editor of—and a contributor to—Mixed: An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience (W.W. Norton), which features original work by Danzy Senna and Ruth Ozeki, among others. She is also the author of Outwitting the Job Market as well as dozens of articles on diversity and the workplace. Her novel On Borrowed Wings, about a girl who attends Yale University in the 1930s in the guise of a boy, will be published by Atria (Simon & Schuster) in June. Chandra lives in Connecticut with her husband, son, and an iguana named Green Bean.
Sheila Kohler has just published Bluebird or the Invention of Happiness (Other Press, April 2007), an account of an 18th century French noblewoman who left Revolutionary France and became a successful dairy farmer in Massachusetts. She is the author of five other novels: The Perfect Place,(Knopf,1989) The House on R Street, (Knopf, 1994) Cracks (Zoland,1999) Children of Pithiviers, (Zoland, June, 2001) and Crossways(The Ontario Review Press, October 2004), and three collections of short stories: Miracles in America,(Knopf, 1990) One Girl (Helicon Nine, 1999) and Stories from Another World (2003, Ontario Review Press).
Kohler has been awarded the O.Henry, (1988), the Open Voice Award(1991), The Willa Cather Prize for One Girl(1998), the Smart Family Foundation prize (October, 2000) and the Antioch Review Prize, (2004). She was a fellow at the Cullman Center at the New York Public Library in 2003/4 and teaches at Bennington and Brooklyn College.
