{"id":7501,"date":"2026-09-14T17:03:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T17:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/english\/?p=7501"},"modified":"2026-09-25T17:32:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T17:32:17","slug":"novelist-peter-orner-joins-vanderbilt-reading-series-september-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/english\/novelist-peter-orner-joins-vanderbilt-reading-series-september-24\/","title":{"rendered":"Novelist Peter Orner joins Vanderbilt Reading Series – September 24"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acclaimed novelist Peter Orner<\/strong> will join the 2026-2027 Gertrude C. & Harold S. Vanderbilt Reading Series<\/a> on September 24.<\/p>\n

The evening will begin with a literary salon at 6:30 PM, followed by a public reading 7:00 and a book-signing at 8:00.<\/p>\n

Thursday, September 24<\/strong>
\nVanderbilt Special Collections Library, 1101 19th Avenue South, Nashville<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Peter Orner is the author of eight books, most recently the novel, The Gossip Columnist\u2019s Daughter<\/i><\/a>, named one of the best books of 2025 by the New Yorker<\/i> and the Chicago Tribune<\/i>, as well as the essay collections, Still No Word from You<\/i>, a finalist for the PEN Award for the Art of the Essay, and Am I Alone Here?<\/i>, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. His story collection Maggie Brown and Others<\/i> was a New York Times<\/i> Notable Book. Other books include Love and Shame and Love (Winner of the California Book Award) Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge<\/i>, The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo<\/i> (finalist for the Los Angeles Times<\/i> Book Award), and Esther Stories<\/i>. 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\u2019s<\/i> called \u201cDispatches.\u201d His work has appeared in the New Yorker, Atlantic, Harper\u2019s, <\/i>Paris Review<\/i> and has been awarded four Pushcart Prizes. With Yvette Benavides, he\u2019s the co-host of the Lonely Voice Podcast on Texas Public Radio. Orner recently led short courses on James Joyce\u2019s Ulysses<\/i>, and Melville\u2019s Moby-Dick<\/i> for the Community of Writers\/Writers\u2019 Annex. He teaches at Dartmouth College and lives in Vermont.<\/p>\n

The Gertrude C. and Harold S. Vanderbilt Reading Series is named in honor of Vanderbilt founder Cornelius Vanderbilt\u2019s 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\u2019s citizens a chance to meet and talk with some of the best writers of our day.<\/p>\n

To learn more about upcoming events and Creative Writing program news, visit the Vanderbilt Reading Series website<\/a> and social media channels<\/a>, and sign up for the monthly newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click to read the full press release.<\/a> [pdf]<\/p>\n

RECENT NEWS<\/a><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Acclaimed novelist Peter Orner will join the 2026-2027 Gertrude C. & Harold S. Vanderbilt Reading Series on September 24. The evening will begin with a literary salon at 6:30 PM, followed by a public reading 7:00 and a book-signing at 8:00. Thursday, September 24 Vanderbilt Special Collections Library, 1101 19th Avenue South, Nashville Peter Orner…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":7502,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8,19,18,14,15],"tags":[5],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-14-120010.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7501"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7501"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7611,"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7501\/revisions\/7611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}