Author Douglas Bauer, who received his Doctor of Arts in writing from the University in 1983, has had his most recent novel, The Book of Famous Iowans, published this year, and he will read from that work and others on Tuesday, Oct. 7, in the Recital Hall of the Performing Arts Center, plus give an afternoon mini-workshop on Getting the Novel Published.
Bauer received critical acclaim in a book review from the New York Times for his 1989 novel, Dexterity, the story of a marriage gone bad, set in a run-down hamlet in upstate New York. The genius of Dexterity is that it is scrupulously organized and yet seamless in its narrative structure. His second novel, The Very Air (1993), was the tale of a 1920s and 30s medical conman. Kirkus Reviews called it, an imaginative lark in the Doctorow vein . . . rough and tumble fiction that exults in its inventiveness.
Bauer is well-equipped to advise on the publishing process, and his mini-workshop, which takes place at 4 p.m. in Humanities Building 354, indicates the challenge involved: How works of fiction move from the authors hands through agents and editors and, finally, into print.
Bauer has abetted his fiction writing career with a long list of journalistic articles, essays and criticisms, appearing in such magazines as Esquire, Harpers, Sports Illustrated, the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, and the New York Times Book Review. His first book, Prairie City, Iowa (1979), was a non-fictional portrait of the town in which he was raised.
After graduating from Albany, Bauer taught at both Harvard and Ohio State universities.