Author Melanie Hoffert will be at Bismarck State College Thursday, March 21, to read from her book, "Prairie Silence: A Memoir," at 8 p.m. in the National Energy Center of Excellence Basin Electric Auditorium 304.
The book, recently published by Beacon Press, tells about a rural expatriate's journey to reconcile home, love and faith. Hoffert talks about the generation of in-betweens raised on the land who leave, but not completely.
Margaret Flanagan of Booklist calls Hoffert's book "a heartfelt coming-out story as well as an eloquent elegy to a rural way of life that is rapidly vanishing from the American landscape."
Originally from Wyndmere, Hoffert is a Concordia College graduate with a Master of Fine Arts from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., where she received the Outstanding Creative Nonfiction Thesis Award.
Her essay, "Going Home," won the Creative Nonfiction Award from the Baltimore Review. "The Allure of Grain Trucks" was selected as a finalist for the Writers at Work Fellowship Competition and won the New Millennium Writings Creative Nonfiction Award. The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis selected her as a finalist for the Loft Mentor Series twice. Her work also has appeared in the university publications, Muse & Stone and The Mochila Review. "Prairie Silence" is her first book.
Hoffert's residency includes presentations in BSC English classes and a writing workshop that is now closed to registration. She will answer questions after the reading and sign her book.
Her appearance is part of BSC's Visiting Writers Series, sponsored by the English program of the Arts and Communication Department with grant support from the BSC Foundation and the North Dakota Humanities Council.
About Bismarck State College
Bismarck State College, an innovative community college in Bismarck, N.D., offers high quality education, workforce training, and enrichment programs reaching local and global communities.
The book, recently published by Beacon Press, tells about a rural expatriate's journey to reconcile home, love and faith. Hoffert talks about the generation of in-betweens raised on the land who leave, but not completely.
Margaret Flanagan of Booklist calls Hoffert's book "a heartfelt coming-out story as well as an eloquent elegy to a rural way of life that is rapidly vanishing from the American landscape."
Originally from Wyndmere, Hoffert is a Concordia College graduate with a Master of Fine Arts from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., where she received the Outstanding Creative Nonfiction Thesis Award.
Her essay, "Going Home," won the Creative Nonfiction Award from the Baltimore Review. "The Allure of Grain Trucks" was selected as a finalist for the Writers at Work Fellowship Competition and won the New Millennium Writings Creative Nonfiction Award. The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis selected her as a finalist for the Loft Mentor Series twice. Her work also has appeared in the university publications, Muse & Stone and The Mochila Review. "Prairie Silence" is her first book.
Hoffert's residency includes presentations in BSC English classes and a writing workshop that is now closed to registration. She will answer questions after the reading and sign her book.
Her appearance is part of BSC's Visiting Writers Series, sponsored by the English program of the Arts and Communication Department with grant support from the BSC Foundation and the North Dakota Humanities Council.
About Bismarck State College
Bismarck State College, an innovative community college in Bismarck, N.D., offers high quality education, workforce training, and enrichment programs reaching local and global communities.