Acclaimed Writer To Read on Campus

Author Bennett Sims will read an original piece of fiction as part of the Clayton B. Ofstad Readings Series at 7:30 p.m. March 18 in the University Art Gallery.

Sims will read a multimedia piece titled “White Dialogues,” which incorporates scenes and images from the classic Alfred Hitchcock film “Vertigo.”

Born in Baton Rouge, La., Sims is the author of the novel “A Questionable Shape,” winner of the Bard Fiction Prize and a finalist for the Believer Book Award. The novel, and its UK addition, has received excellent reviews: 

“This unusual take on the zombie novel [is] not so much a book as an existentialist meditation,” — the Guardian.

“[A Questionable Shape] transcends the traditional zombie narrative to deliver a wise and philosophical rumination on the nature of memory and loss,” — Bard Fiction Prize Committee.

Sims’ writing has also appeared in A Public Space, Conjunctions, Electric Literature, Tin House and Zoetrope: All-Story.

A graduate of Pomona College, where he was one of the last students of the late David Foster Wallace, Sims earned his MFA degree from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, where he received a Provost Fellowship and a Michener-Copernicus Award. Sims is currently teaching at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop as a visiting assistant professor.

This event is funded by The Clayton B. Ofstad Endowed Chair in English, the first-ever endowed faculty chair at Truman, honoring Clayton B. Ofstad. Ofstad joined Truman’s Language and Literature Department in 1967 and taught at the University for several decades.

The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.