Jonathan Franzen, author of “The Corrections,” will be speaking in Dowagiac on Saturday, May 14, 2011. Not only did he win the 2001 National Book Award, but he delighted the Dogwood Fine Arts Visiting Author Committee by appearing on the cover of Time magazine on sale today.

Franzen is the first living writer to appear on the cover since Stephen King in 2000, but the honor puts him in the accomplished company of previous Dowagiac visitors John Updike and Norman Mailer.

“Great American Novelist,” proclaims the cover. The article, by Lev Grossman, profiles Franzen on the occasion of his fourth novel, “Freedom,” the story of an American family that is being published this month.