Author Archives: Peter Selgin

About Peter Selgin

Peter Selgin is the author of Drowning Lessons, winner of the 2007 Flannery O’Connor Award for Fiction, Life Goes to the Movies, a novel, two books on the craft of fiction, and several children’s books. His memoir, Confessions of a Left-Handed Man, was short-listed for the William Saroyan International Prize. His latest novel, The Water Master, won the William Faulkner Society Prize, selected by Random House Senior Editor Will Murphy. His work has won the Missouri Review Editors’ Prize, the Dana Award, six Best American Essay notable essay citations, and two selections for the Best American series. A second memoir, The Inventors, is forthcoming from Hawthorne Books in April of 2016. He teaches at Antioch University’s MFA program and is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Georgia College & State University.

A Monumental Modesty: Morandi at the Met

Posted on November 16, 2008 by Peter Selgin

For as long as I can remember I’ve been drawn to Morandi’s paintings of bottles and vases arranged with “fearful symmetry.” Maybe because the artist was Italian, like my parents, and named Giorgio, like my cousin in Genoa—or because his … Continue reading →

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Mr. Fesh and the Meaning of Life

Posted on November 10, 2008 by Peter Selgin

Yesterday afternoon I read at a Barnes & Noble book store in Danbury, Connecticut, a few miles from the town where I grew up and lived for eighteen years. A beautiful autumn day, sunny, breezy and cool (as the forecasters … Continue reading →

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Okay, so That Was a Bit Harsh. . .

Posted on October 31, 2008 by Peter Selgin

The other day I wrote to you, my students: I love you all BUT: I’m disappointed (and annoyed) at how few of you did the assigned reading. Some of you admitted honestly that you simply hadn’t done it; others claimed … Continue reading →

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Reading Out Loud

Posted on October 23, 2008 by Peter Selgin

I write to read–not just to myself, but to others. There is something about holding a book in my hands and reading words off the page to others that fills me with a warm sense of communion and connection, of … Continue reading →

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