Two Pacific Faculty Members Make Top EW List

How's this for defining works?

In its Sept. 4 print edition, Entertainment Weekly featured a map listing the books that most represent each of the United States. 

"Which novel captures the true spirit of Iowa?" asks the popular magazine. "How about Texas? Or Rhode Island? Here, EW picks the one work of fiction that best defines each state in the union."

The picks are diverse, from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (Alabama) to Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Nevada).

And, the list includes not one, but two, authors who serve on the faculty of Pacific University's low-residency Master of Fine Arts in Writing Program.

EW picked Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn, as the novel representing Oregon, along with Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell to represent Michigan.

Dunn and Campbell are among about 35 acclaimed authors of fiction, nonfiction and poetry who serve as faculty members and mentors in the low-residency MFA at Pacific. The program pairs writing students with faculty mentors as they embark on a two-year program of rigorous guided study. Faculty and students come together twice a year for intensive 10-day residencies (winter in Seaside, Ore., and summer on Pacific's Forest Grove Campus) that include craft talks, readings, and writers workshops.

Dunn lives in the Portland area, while Campbell, who lives in Michigan, is touring to promote her newest book, Mothers, Tell Your Daughters. She will be at Powell's on Hawthorne on Oct. 26.