Author blurs fiction, reality

Undergraduates and graduates gathered in Gilman 323 on Tuesday for award-winning author and essayist David Evanier's reading of two works, the short fiction "Mother" and an excerpt from the biography Roman Candle: The Life of Bobby Darin, in a Writing Seminars-sponsored event.

Evanier's reading received a warm reception from both students who attended and from faculty members in the Writing Seminars department.

Writing Seminars professor Stephen Dixon said that Evanier's nonfiction resembles the style of his fictional works.

"Interestingly enough, the bios, although factual, read like David's fictions," Dixon said. "They're straight-forward, fast-paced, raw, artistic, and, as the actor Kevin Spacey said, although not to me, "Compelling and revealing and a treasure to read.'"

Dixon invited Evanier to share his work at Tuesday's event.

"I've known David for about 15 years, and I think this is the first time I've invited a friend to read," Dixon said. "This was special because David's a friend of mine, and I have always admired David's work."

In Evanier's fictional story Mother, for which he won the McGinnis-Ritchie Award for Fiction, Evanier recounts the tale of a son who struggled to come to terms with his mother's condition and his mother's attitude towards him.

Evanier read: "He wondered about her strangeness, how she came to be. He remembered her loneliness and cruelty, but nothing good about her or how she treated him. Yet, she did buy him his first kosher hot dog on a cold winter day, which was delicious."

Freshman Emily Wisnioski said, "I like the first story [Mother] a lot. It's different [from what I'm used to]--I was doing my physics homework for three hours, so it was nice to come and listen."

Roman Candle:The Life of Bobby Darin depicts the true story of singer Bobby Darin, who achieved fame despite his struggle with a congenital heart condition.

Evanier told the News-Letter he discovered writing as a mode of expression at a young age.

"I was really writing from the time I was about 11 or 12. I loved a lot of the writers that I first read -- James D. Farrell and Richard Wright. [Writing] was something I could do really well," Evanier said. "It spoke to me. The writing itself moved me, and spoke to me in terms of my own experience -- my own condition -- and made me feel less lonely."

To choose the subjects for his fiction and non-fiction, Evanier said he relies on his life experiences and interests.

"In terms of the fiction, basically, it's life experience -- what obsesses you, and what you're trying to solve in your own life, and things that move you that are either very painful or very joyous," Evanier said.

He added that his process for producing nonfiction, including his biography of Bobby Darin, develops in a similar way.

"I have certain interests. I have interest in music -- I wanted to be a singer when I was a kid," Evanier said. "So, it has to be a project that I truly believe in, which is in a sense very much like a fiction -- a singer that I really believe in, or a subject that I'm committed to."

Evanier currently works at the Writer's Room in New York City, and said that he thoroughly enjoys writing.

"Expressing something -- reaching a point of clarity on the page -- it gives me a sense of having captured something with insight, with a sense that you've done something that hasn't been done before and the deeper understanding you have of situations in your life that you may not have had before."

Evanier added, "Creating beautiful things -- it's a tremendous feeling of exhilaration when you do it right. It is one of the biggest highs you can get."

Evanier has published novels, short stories, essays and biographies. His articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, New York magazine, The New Republic, The Village Voice and The Nation, among other publications.

Evanier has also won the Aga Khan Fiction Prize. His novel Making the Wiseguys Weep: The Jimmy Roselli Story was featured as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and was a finalist in the Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Awards.

According to Dixon, the Writing Seminars department holds two to three sessions a year in which professors invite authors to share their writing.

"In Writing Seminars, each permanent member of the faculty has the opportunity to invite someone [to speak]," he said.