UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Award-winning novelist Stephen Graham Jones will offer a reading at Penn State as part of this year’s Mary E. Rolling Reading Series. The reading, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8 in Paterno Library’s Foster Auditorium at University Park.
Jones is a New York Times bestselling author of nearly 30 novels, novellas, collections and comic books. Many of his works reside in the horror, science fiction and experimental fiction genres and have received literary acclaim. His doctoral dissertation at Florida State University later became his debut novel, “The Fast Red Road: A Plainsong” (2000). More recent popular works include “The Only Good Indians” (2020) and “My Heart is a Chainsaw” (Book 1 in The Indian Lake Trilogy, 2021), which received the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel. Book 2 in the trilogy, “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” is set to be released in February 2023.
Jones’ lifelong admiration for horror movies and his inspiration at first viewing “Scream” in 1996, is distinctly reflected in his work. “My Heart is a Chainsaw” was described by novelist Alma Katsu as “an homage to slasher films that also manages to defy and transcend genre.” National Book Award winner and author Tananarive Due described Jones as “a literary master who happens to write horror,” noting “you've never read a book quite like ‘The Only Good Indians.’”
Jones’ many awards include, the Los Angeles Times’ Ray Bradbury Prize, four Bram Stoker Awards, two Shirley Jackson Awards, and five This is Horror Awards. He is the Ivena Baldwin Professor of English at the University of Colorado and is an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana. He currently resides in Boulder, Colorado, with his wife, children and dogs.
The Mary E. Rolling Reading Series is a program offered by Penn State’s Creative Writing Program in English. The series receives support from the Penn State College of the Liberal Arts, the Penn State Department of English, the Joseph L. Grucci Poetry Endowment, the Mary E. Rolling Lectureship in Creative Writing, and Penn State University Libraries. A full list of readings in the 2022-23 series, as well as links for livestreams and virtual readings, can be found at creativewriting.psu.edu.