Best-selling novelist to teach in January at Luther College

Best-selling novelist Jane Hamilton will teach a course on fiction at Luther College in January.

Hamilton will join members of the Luther English department to teach the January term course "Adventures in Reading and Writing Fiction."  Hamilton says the class will explore short fiction, the one-act play and a genre the students will choose. "The goal is to make stories in a few different forms, to catch ourselves in the act of writing and, most important, to write for the joy of the work," she told Luther's student newspaper, Chips.

As part of her visit, Hamilton will give a reading at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, January 17th, in the Center for Faith and Life Recital Hall.  The reading is open to the public at no charge for admission.

Hamilton's first two novels, "The Book of Ruth" and "A Map of the World," were Oprah's Book Club selections. "The Book of Ruth" also won the PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award for first fiction. Each book was later the basis for a motion picture.  She has also written "Disobedience," "When Madeline Was Young" and her latest book, "Laura Rider's Masterpiece."