California State University, Fresno professor and novelist Steve Yarbrough, whose latest novel, “The End of California,” has won critical acclaim, will address the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute on April 11 at 5:30 p.m. in the Satellite Student Union, 2485 E. San Ramon Ave.
The event is open to the public for a $10 admission fee, payable at the door. OLLI members attend for free. Yarbrough’s book will be available for purchase and he will sign books after the event.
Yarbrough is the James and Coke Hallowell Distinguished Professor in Creative Writing in the English Department and a leader in the university’s master of fine arts program.
He was a finalist for the prestigious PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 2005 for his novel, “Prisoners of War.” He previously was awarded the California Book Award from the Commonwealth Club of California and was the John and Renee Grisham Visiting Southern Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi.
The End of California” is about a young man from Loring, Miss., who travels to Fresno State to play football and then becomes a well-known physician in the city before a scandal sends him back to Mississippi. He re-establishes himself as a doctor, but his wife and teenage daughter must cope with a strange place while he is unsettled by reminders of his past.
Yarbrough came to Fresno State in 1988. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Mississippi and a master of fine arts from the University of Arkansas.
He is the author of many short stories. His first novel, “The Oxygen Man,” published in 1999, was followed by “Visible Spirits” (2001) and “Prisoners of War” (2004).
Parking restrictions will be relaxed in lots P and J for the program.
The Osher Institute at Fresno State offers lectures, workshops, short courses and field trips of particular interest to retired or semi-retired adults. For more information, call 559.278.0008.
