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Tobias Wolff Visits OSU for Common Book Program
Wolff gave a reading from his work before an assembled group of students who had read and discussed his novel, Old School. Freshman Amber Phelps introduced Wolff at his reading as an acclaimed writer and said that reading his novel was a personal experience for her and others: “just about everyone in our discussion group had a personal connection to the book.” Wolff, who is the author of six books of fiction and nonfiction, read his short story, “Bullet in the Brain.” His most recent collection of short stories is The Night in Question. His novella, The Barracks Thief, won the Pen/Faulkner award for fiction in 1985.
The reading was part of an annual quarter-long Common Book Program that seeks to invite first-year Ohio State students into their new intellectual life by having them read a book that is then discussed in a number of venues. Other events included a Q & A session, small group discussions, lectures, and a screening of the film based on Wolf’s memoir, This Boy’s Life.
Wolff talked and read for about an hour, sharing the story of how he became a writer with an audience of about six hundred, encouraging students to remember the importance of those first books “that made you go to school with bags under your eyes because you couldn’t stop reading them at night.” For Wolff, this writer was Albert Terhune, who wrote numerous stories featuring the imagined adventures of collie dogs. His books, while not literary, introduced Wolf to the passion of reading. “Once you learn that passion,” Wolff said, “you want stronger stuff. One book opens on to another.”
Michelle Herman, director of the Common Book Program, said that the program this year “exceeded my wildest expectations and hopes, mostly because Toby was so gracious and generous and engaged. He said that the freshmen he met—that you could shake them up with a bunch of freshman from Stanford and you’d never know the difference.”
“As a common book experience, I don’t think students could have done better,” Herman said. “Other universities are asking about our choice for the next common book.”
