Award winning writer Kevin Wilson featured in Southeastern's ‘Common Read’ program
Monday, March 14, 2016 
by: Rene Abadie
HAMMOND – Kevin Wilson, author of the award-winning collection of stories, “Tunneling
to the Center of the Earth,” and the novel “The Family Fang,” will visit Southeastern
Louisiana University March 21 as part of the institution’s Common Read program.
Sponsored by the Department of English and the Southeastern Writing Center, Common
Read provides students and community members the opportunity to read selected works
and then meet a contemporary author.
Events that day include student presentations on the author’s work at 9:30 a.m.,
an 11 a.m. question and answer session with the author, and a 6:30 p.m. public reading
by Wilson followed by a book signing and reception. All events are open to the public
and will be held in the Student Union Theatre.
“Tunneling to the Center of the Earth,” is Wilson’s 2009 collection of stories,
which won the Alex Award from the American Library Association and the Shirley Jackson
Award. His fiction has been published in publications like “Ploughshares,” “Tin House,”
and “One Story,” and has been featured in “New Stories of the South: The Year’s Best.”
His novel, “The Family Fang,” was recently adapted for the screen by actor/director
Jason Bateman.
Wilson teaches at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., where he lives
with his wife, Leigh Anne Couch, and their two sons, Griff and Patch.
“For several years now, we’ve sponsored a Common Read program, featuring a prominent,
contemporary author, and it always serves as an exciting experience for our students,”
said Department of English Head David Hanson. “By meeting and talking with an author
who they’re studying in class, students gain a rare opportunity to see deeply into
an author’s life of writing.”
