September 30, 2003 SELINSGROVE, (Pa.) - Award-winning writer Gary Fincke will read from his recently published book The Stone Child at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 16 in Meeting Rooms 3-5 of the Degenstein Campus Center at Susquehanna University. Fiction writer Jill McCorkle said, "Gary Fincke's The Stone Child is an engaging and entertaining collection. Behind every quirky character and underlying each witty exchange, lurks a story steeped in human frailty and emotion." Fincke has published 17 books of poetry and short fiction, most recently Writing Letters for the Blind, a collection of poems which won the 2003 Ohio State University Press/The Journal Book Award. His collection of stories called Sorry I Worried You, which won the 2003 Flannery O'Connor Award, is scheduled for publication in 2004, as is his nonfiction book titled Kicking Ass, a personal recording of his son's rock and roll life with the signed bands Lifer and Breaking Benjamin. Fincke has received the Bess Hokin Prize from Poetry Magazine, the Rose Lefcowitz Prize from Poet Lore, a PEN Syndicated Fiction Prize, as well as seven fellowships for creative writing from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, including one this year for creative nonfiction. Fincke recently won the George Garrett Fiction Prize for a new story called "The Blazer Sestina." His poems, stories, and essays have appeared in such periodicals as Harper's, Newsday, The Paris Review, The Kenyon Review, The Georgia Review, American Scholar, and Doubletake. Fincke is the director of the Writers' Institute at Susquehanna University, which oversees the development of more than 60 creative writing majors. He teaches introductory and advanced classes in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. This reading is free and open to the public. Copies of The Stone Child will be available for purchase and signing. Contact: Victoria Kidd 570-372-4119 #vk/0713#