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Minnesota author Jim Heynen to read from new book at St. Olaf College

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October 15, 2001

Minnesota author Jim Heynen will read from and sign copies of his new book The Boys? House: New and Selected Stories on Wednesday, Oct. 17, at St. Olaf College in Northfield.

The reading, free and open to the public, will be at 7:30 p.m. in Rolvaag Library Room 525 on the St. Olaf campus. Heynen will sign copies of The Boys? House after the reading. The reading is co-sponsored by the St. Olaf and Carleton College Bookstores.

The Boys? House: New and Selected Stories is a collection of Heynen?s work from the last 20 years. Twenty of the 64 stories are brand new, while some of the rest are revised versions of tales originally published in his first two collections. Each is about the lives of a group of farm boys and the adventures that lead them to lessons about human nature and the world around them.

Gary Snyder calls The Boys? House "fresh as a bucket of cold water?as transparent, and refreshing." Geeta Sharma-Jensen of the Milwaukee Journal says Heynen?s voice, a combination of "sage, preacher, scribe, [and] storyteller, ?slyly smuggles his observation of humanity into these stories."

Heynen, writer-in-residence since 1992 at St. Olaf, has published three previous collections of stories: The One-Room Schoolhouse, You Know What Is Right, and The Man Who Kept Cigars in His Cap. His novels for young adults include Cosmos Coyote and William the Nice and Being Youngest. His collections of poetry include Standing Naked: New and Selected Poems.

Born on a farm in northwest Iowa, Heynen attended one of the state?s last one-room schoolhouses. After attending Calvin College and the University of Iowa, he received his M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Oregon. He teaches creative writing at St. Olaf.

St. Olaf College prepares students to become responsible citizens of the world, fostering development of mind, body and spirit. A four-year, coeducational liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), St. Olaf has a student enrollment of 2,950 and a full-time faculty complement of approximately 300. It is one of Money Guide?s top 100 "elite values in college education today," and it leads the nation?s colleges in percentage of students who study abroad.

Contact Carole Leigh Engblom at 507-786-3315 or leigh@stolaf.edu.