Novelist, poet, and translator Idra Novey will return to Washington College on September 7 as part of the First Year Book Program. Her novel, Ways to Disappear, was assigned as the first-year read for the incoming Class of 2020. The reading and discussion, which will be held at 4:30 PM in Decker Theatre, Gibson Center for the Arts, is free and open to the public.

The First-Year Book Program provides incoming Washington College freshmen with the chance to immerse themselves in the College’s academic culture from their first moment on campus. The summer before classes begin, incoming first-year students read a book that reflects the mission of Washington College, in preparation for facilitated discussion with their peers. The program culminates with a reading and lecture by the author.

Ways to Disappear, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and Staff Pick at The Paris Review, is Novey’s first novel. Her poetry collections include Exit, Civilian, selected for the National Poetry Series, The Next Country, winner of the Kinereth Gensler Award, and Clarice: The Visitor, a collaboration with the artist Erica Baum. She has also translated the work of several prominent Brazilian writers, most recently Clarice Lispector’s novel The Passion According to G.H. She is the recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Poets & Writers Magazine, the PEN Translation Fund, the Poetry Foundation, and the Poetry Society of America.

Novey previously visited the College in 2012 as part of the Rose O’Neill Literary House “Jewish Voices” lecture series, where she read excerpts from her poetry collection, Exit, Civilian. This event is made possible by the generosity of the Provost’s Office, the Sophie Kerr Committee, and the William James Forum.

For more information on the literary events offered this year, visit the Literary House website at www.washcoll.edu/centers/lithouse/, or view our annual Literary Events Calendar brochure here: www.washcoll.edu/live/files/6323-literary-events-calendar-2016-2017-brochure.