Upwards of thirty students and faculty gathered filed into room 258 of the Penguin Union Building for the year’s final installment of the Columbia Writers Series on May 12.
Acclaimed fiction writer Jim Shepard read excerpts of his latest story “Positive Train Control,” which Shepard said he just sent to his agent.
Shepard, a film and creative writing professor at Williams College in Massachusetts, is the author of seven books, including the holocaust novel “Book of Aron.” Shepard’s writing mostly centers around catastrophe.
Shepard said writing about disaster makes him a more empathetic, interesting and well-rounded person. “If you’re interested in catastrophe, you’re pretty well suited for the 21st century,” Shepard said.
Clark’s Columbia Writers Series has brought writers from around country and beyond to the college since 1988.
