By Staff
The Dogwood Fine Arts Festival prepares to add another notable author to its impressive history on Friday, May 15. Ann Patchett will be the 37th notable literary guest.
Patchett burst on the literary landscape with her first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars, which was named a New York Times Notable Book for 1992.
She followed this novel with Taft in 1993 and The Magician's Assistant, which was short-listed for England's Orange Prize, in 1994.
Her next novel, Bel Canto, won both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in 2002, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. It was named the "Book Sense" Book of the Year. It sold over a million copies in the United States and has been translated into 30 languages. In 2004, Patchett published Truth and Beauty, a memoir of her friendship with the writer Lucy Grealy. It was named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle and Entertainment Weekly. Truth and Beauty was also a finalist for the "Los Angeles Times Book Prize" and won the "Chicago Tribune's Heartland Prize," the "Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award" from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the "Alex Award" from the American Library Association. Patchett's latest novel, Run, appeared on the New York Times bestseller list.
K&M Machine-Fabricating Inc. of Cassopolis continues its commitment to the arts in southwest Michigan as sponsor of this event.
Dogwood Fine Arts Festival is made possible through the sponsorship of the St. Denys Foundation and grant awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.