Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Acclaimed story writer Edith Pearlman, author of the debut collection from Lookout Books, Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories, will read at the imprint launch at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 3 in Bryan Auditorium, located on the first floor of Morton Hall at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. UNCW's Department of Creative Writing invites the community to join in celebrating its new Lookout imprint by meeting the author and hearing her read. A book signing and reception will follow.

Pearlman's UNCW appearance is part of a national book tour to promote Binocular Vision. Her Wilmington stop will also include a guest visit to a UNCW fiction workshop, a reading and discussion of her identity as a prominent Jewish writer at 7 p.m., Wednesday, March 2 at B'nai Israel Synagogue, 2601 Chestnut Street, and an interview March 3 at noon with Jemila Ericson of WHQR's Midday Café.

Edith Pearlman is the author of four short-story collections, including her most recent, Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories, which has received glowing critical praise. In January, it garnered a front-page review on the cover of the New York Times Book Review. Pearlman's fiction has earned three O. Henry prizes and has appeared three times in Best American Short Stories, twice in The Pushcart Prize anthology and once in New Stories from the South.

Lookout Books was founded by Emily Louise Smith, director of The Publishing Laboratory at UNCW, and Ben George, editor of the university's literary journal, Ecotone, in an effort to seek out emerging and historically underrepresented voices, as well as overlooked gems by established writers. Lookout's debut title, Binocular Vision, was featured on the cover of the New York Times Book Review, as well as in the Los Angeles Times, an unprecedented accomplishment for a teaching press. Since its establishment at the University of North Carolina Wilmington in 2000, The Publishing Laboratory has provided student interns the opportunity to learn the process by which literary manuscripts are edited, designed, marketed and sold to a wide audience of readers.

For more information on Edith Pearlman and Lookout Books, please visit their websites: www.edithpearlman.com and lookout.org.

For more information on UNCW's programs and events in creative writing, please contact the Department of Creative Writing at 910.962.7063.