2018 New Harmony Writer-in-Residence to hold public reading

The New Harmony Writer's Residency will host a reading featuring 2018 New Harmony Writer-in-Residence Elena Passarello at 7 p.m. on Thursday, August 9. The event will take place at Thrall's Opera House in New Harmony, Indiana. This event is free and open to the public.

Passarello is an actor, a writer, and the recipient of a 2015 Whiting Award. Her second essay collection with Sarabande Books, Animals Strike Curious Poses, was named a Notable Book of 2017 by The New York Times Book Review, and her first, Let Me Clear My Throat, won the gold medal for non-fiction at the 2013 Independent Publisher Awards. Her essays on performance, pop culture, and the natural world have been published in the Oxford American, Creative Nonfiction, and The Iowa Review, among others. Passarello lives in Corvallis, Oregon, and teaches at Oregon State University.

"Elena Passarello's Animals Strike Curious Poses is a wonderful collection of essays about animals and our interactions with them," said Dr. Chuck Conaway, associate professor of English and director of masters program. "The essays combine fascinating historical research into Mozart's pet starling, circus elephants, Koko the gorilla, war pigeons, Cecil the lion, and many others, with unexpected perspectives that leave us marveling at the abilities of these creatures who share our world and more than a little confounded, even horrified, by our too frequent mistreatment of them."

This event is made possible through the support of the University of Southern Indiana College of Liberal Arts, the Robert Lee Blaffer Foundation, the USI Foundation, and the USI Society for Arts and Humanities. For more information, contact Dr. Casey Pycior, assistant professor of English, at 812-228-5037 or cpycior@usi.edu.