'Serena' Author Ron Rash to Speak at Ocala Campus

Feb. 2, 2010

Award-winning author Ron Rash will visit Central Florida Community College in March as part of the Debra Vazquez Memorial Poetry Series. The event is set for 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 4, in the Ewers Century Center at the Ocala Campus, 3001 S.W. College Road. There is no charge to attend.

Rash’s most recent novel, “Serena,” made New York Times’ Janet Maslin’s list of 10 Favorite Books of 2008. It also made Best of 2008 lists by Publishers Weekly, Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle, and was No. 7 on Amazon's 100 Best Books of 2008. Pat Conroy said that the book “catapults (Rash) to the front ranks of the best American novelists.” The book was also a finalist for the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award, one of the foremost prizes for literary fiction in the nation.

Rash is currently Parris Distinguished Professor at Western Carolina University and the author of three volumes of poetry, three collections of short stories and four novels. Among his many awards are the Sherwood Anderson Prize, the Novello Award, ForeWord Magazine’s Golden Medal in Literary Fiction, and Fiction Book of the Year by both the Southern Literary Critics Circle and the Southeastern Booksellers Association.

The poetry series brings renowned writers to CFCC and commemorates the life of poet and former CFCC faculty member Debra Vazquez. For more information, contact Ron Cooper at 352-854-2322, ext. 1295, or cooperr@cf.edu.

Maintained by the Office of Marketing and Public Relations at Central Florida Community College. Contact Coordinator Lois Brauckmuller at 352-854-2322, ext. 1374, brauckml@cf.edu, Barbara Trebilcock, coordinator, trebilcb@cf.edu or Dr. Joe Wallace, director, wallacej@cf.edu.