Author Jonathan Franzen Visits Tulsa Thursday

 The AltTulsa gang likes to keep up with contemporary writers and their writing, so we are pleased to put in a plug today for novelist Jonathan Franzen. He will speak Thursday night at TU as part of the university's Presidential Lecture series.

The lecture is set for 7:30 p.m. at TU's new Lorton Performance Center. 

We admit that we know Franzen more by reputation than by a deep reading of his work. Nevertheless, we have been impressed by the popular and critical acclaim that Franzen's work has garnered and we expect his public lecture to be enlightening and even provocative.

Here's some background on the author from the TU website:

Jonathan Franzen stepped into the international pop culture spotlight in 2001 when his book “The Corrections” was published, with translations in 35 languages, American hardcover sales of nearly 1 million copies and nominations for nearly every major book prize in the United States. As if sales and critical acclaim weren’t enough to boost his profile, the author found himself in a public relations imbroglio over his conflicted reaction to his novel’s endorsement by Oprah’s Book Club.

Franzen’s most recent novel is “Freedom” (2010). Writing in the New York Times Book Review, editor Sam Tanenhaus declared the work a “masterpiece of American fiction,” and “Freedom” debuted at No. 1 on the Times’ bestseller list. His short stories and his essays, including political journalism, have most recently appeared in The New Yorker, The Best American Essays, The New York Times, and The Guardian. A new collection of his nonfiction, “Farther Away,” will appear in 2012.