UA News

National Book Award-winning author Denis Johnson is slated to read from his work at the UA Poetry Center this week.

National Book Award-winning author Denis Johnson is slated to read from his work at The University of Arizona Poetry Center this week.

The center will host Jones on April 9 for an 8 p.m. reading at the Helen S. Schaefer Building, which is located at 1508 E. Helen Street.

His visit is part of the UA Prose Series, which serves to bring award-winning writers to the UA for free and open readings. The event is co-sponsored by the series and the UA Poetry Center.

Johnson, who also is a playwright and novelist, will read from his newly-released novel, "Tree of Smoke," which was a finalist in the running for a Pulitzer Prize. The book is his first full-length novel in nearly 10 years.

Previously, Johnson authored "Jesus' Son," a collection of short stories released in 1992 that launched him into mainstream visibility. Another of his most recent work, "Nobody Move," is a serial novel that was printed in 2008.

Prior to Johnson's visit, the Poetry Center will host a public lecture about "Jesus' Son." The event will be held April 6 at 5:30 p.m. at the center.

Cybele Knowles, an events coordinator at the UA Poetry Center, will lead the discussion about the publication, which at the time of its publication was instantly recognized as a piece of work worthy of wide recognition. Knowles also is a fiction writer.

Johnson has earned numerous awards for his work, including a Lannan Fellowship in Fiction, a Whiting Writer's Award and the Aga Khan Prize for Fiction from the Paris Review.