Vanderbilt Reading Series: Peter Orner, Fiction

On September 24, The Gertrude C. & Harold S. Vanderbilt Reading Series will host author and Guggenheim fellow Peter Orner.
About this Event

Vanderbilt Reading Series: Peter Orner, Fiction

Peter Orner is the author of eight books, most recently the novel, The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter, named one of the best books of 2025 by the New Yorker and the Chicago Tribune, as well as the essay collections, Still No Word from You, a finalist for the PEN Award for the Art of the Essay, and Am I Alone Here?, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. His story collection Maggie Brown and Others was a New York Times Notable Book. Other books include Love and Shame and Love (Winner of the California Book Award) Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge, The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo (finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award), and Esther Stories. A recipient of the Rome Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship, Orner is also the editor of three books of oral history for the Voice of Witness series, and co-editor with Laura Lampton Scott of a new oral history series from McSweeney’s called “Dispatches.” His work has appeared in The New Yorker, the Atlantic, Harper’s, the Paris Review and has been awarded four Pushcart Prizes. With Yvette Benavides, he’s the co-host of the Lonely Voice Podcast on Texas Public Radio. Orner recently led short courses on James Joyce’s Ulysses, and Melville’s Moby-Dick for the Community of Writers/Writers’ Annex. He teaches at Dartmouth College and lives in Vermont.

Location: Special Collections Library and University Archives

1101 19th Ave S, Nashville, TN 37212

6:30 - Literary Salon, First Floor Lounge

7:00 - Reading, Second Floor Lecture Hall

8:00 - Book Signing

This event is free and open to the public. Parking is available on the street and in paid lots in the area.

The Gertrude C. and Harold S. Vanderbilt Reading Series is named in honor of Vanderbilt founder Cornelius Vanderbilt’s great-grandson and his wife. Each semester, the series brings several professional writers to campus to read from their works and visit classes. This unique and extraordinary program gives English department students and faculty, the Vanderbilt community, and Nashville’s citizens a chance to meet and talk with some of the best writers of our day.

For more information about the Vanderbilt Reading Series and to sign up for our e-mail announcement list, please visit our website. Additionally, make sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more updates on events and news!