Local poet and novelist Patrick Lawler ’80 will present the next installment of the Spring 2013 Raymond Carver Reading Series at 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 13 in Huntington Beard Crouse (HBC) Gifford Auditorium at Syracuse University. The reading will be preceded by a question and answer session from 3:45 to 4:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Parking is available in SU’s paid lots.

A 1980 graduate of the Creative Writing Program in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences, Lawler is the author of five collections of poetry and one novel. His poetry manuscript, Trade World Center (Ravenna Press, 2012) was the third-place winner of the Cathlamet Prize for Poetry. Other collections of poetry are Underground (Notes Toward an Autobiography) (Many Mountains Moving Press, 2011), which combines an interview with works of poetry and a memoir; Feeding the Fear of the Earth (2006); reading a burning book (1994); and A Drowning Man is Never Tall Enough (1990).

His recent novel, Rescuers of Skydivers Search Among the Clouds (University of Alabama Press, 2012) won the Ronald Sukenick/American Book Review Prize for Innovative Fiction. According to the publisher, “Skydivers is about resonance, echoes, and naming; about hiding inside of names; about standing completely still; and about the fractalization of family. Every character wears a variety of masks, and every place is also someplace else.”

Lawler is professor emeritus at the State University of New York (SUNY) College of Environmental Science and Forestry where he was the director of the writing program from 1990 to 2009. He is Writer in Residence at Le Moyne College, where he teaches poetry, fiction, scriptwriting, and playwriting. Lawler is the recipient of fellowships from the New York State Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment of the Arts, and the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts. His poetry and fiction have appeared in more than 75 journals, including The Iowa Review, Many Mountains Moving, and the American Poetry Review. His plays include Voice/Box, What’s Inside, and Circle of Willis.

Named for the great short story writer and poet who taught at SU in the 1980s, the Raymond Carver Reading Series is a vital part of Syracuse’s literary life. Presented by the Creative Writing Program in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences, the series each year brings 12 to 14 prominent writers to campus to read their works and interact with students.

Spring 2013 Series Schedule
The Series will continue with the following authors. All readings begin at 5:30 p.m. in HBC Gifford Auditorium. Question and Answer sessions are from 3:45 to 4:30 p.m. Further information is available by calling (315) 443-2174.

Feb. 27: Justin Torres, winner of the National Book Foundation 2012 “5 Under 35” award for We the Animals (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011)

March 20: Sarah C. Harwell, author of Sit Down Traveler (Antilever Press, 2012) and associate director of SU’s Creative Writing Program

April 3: Dean young, author of Bender, New and Selected Poems (Canyon Press, 2012), named “Best of 2012” by the Los Angeles Times

April 24: Diane Williams, award-winning short-story teller and author of seven works of fiction, including Vicky Swanky Is a Beauty (McSweeney’s, 2012).