Award-winning author Peter Carey will give a public reading tonight in Conway as part of the University of Central Arkansas’s Fall 2009 Artist in Residence program.

Garry Craig Powell, assistant professor of writing and one of the faculty sponsors of the residency, said Carey was chosen for the program because of his experience in writing and teaching.

“He’s one of the foremost fiction writers in the English-speaking world,” Powell said. “His imagination is immense; his scope is unlimited. He can do anything. He’s not only an extremely skilled writer but also a very entertaining one. He’s one of the best storytellers alive.”

Carey is scheduled to begin his residency with the public reading tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Lewis Science Center 102. On Wednesday, he will talk about the craft of writing at 10 a.m. in Thompson Hall 331. All events are free and open to the public.

Carey, born in Australia, is one of only two writers in history to win the Booker Prize twice. He won for Oscar and Lucinda and True History of the Kelly Gang. He has published 17 books, most of them novels, and is currently the director of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at Hunter College in New York.

Powell said Carey might read from his award-winning novel True History of the Kelly Gang and his about-to-be-published novel Parrot and Olivier in America. But he added that he thought the audience would be thrilled
with whatever Carey decides to read during his residency.

“He’s one of the most popular literary fiction writers in the world because he’s a wonderful storyteller. Everyone can enjoy that,” Powell said. “He also has a great sense of humor and a gift for transporting his readers into other worlds. Any good storyteller can draw in not only people who are interested in literature but everyone who has imagination, intelligence and sensitivity.”

The Artist in Residence program is funded through UCA’s arts fee and administered by the College of Fine Arts and Communication.