Marion Ettlinger

Irish writer Edna O'Brien, author of "Country Girls, Wild Decembers" and "In the Forest," will deliver the first Eamon McEnerney Memorial Reading.

Edna O'Brien, one of Ireland's foremost literary figures, will give a fiction reading as the first event in the new Eamon McEneaney Memorial Reading Series Thursday, Oct. 3, at 8 p.m. in Schwartz Auditorium of Rockefeller Hall on the Cornell University campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Born and raised in Ireland, O'Brien is the author of more than 20 books, including Wild Decembers, Down by the River, House of Splendid Isolation and, most recently, In the Forest. An honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she now lives in London.

"Edna O'Brien is one of the world's great writers, and this is not idle puffery," said Kenneth McClane, the W.E.B. DuBois Professor of English and chair of the Cornell English department's Creative Writing Program (CWP). "I can't think of anyone who writes with greater lucidity, invention or poetry. When one reads her, one delights in a lyricism so deep, magical and provident that the heart almost falters. Testy, difficult and edgy, O'Brien's prose always asks: 'What destruction am I blessed by?'"

O'Brien's appearance is the first event in the Eamon McEneaney Memorial Reading Series, which will be administered by CWP. McEneaney, a 1977 alumnus, was a distinguished student-athlete and star lacrosse player at Cornell. An employee of the securities firm Cantor Fitzgerald, he was killed in the attack on New York's World Trade Center, Sept. 11, 2001. The annual reading series was established through the generosity of McEneaney's teammates and friends.

O'Brien will be in residence at Cornell for five days and will meet with writing students and faculty in a series of informal colloquia. In addition, she will sign books Wednesday, Oct. 2, 4:30-6 p.m. at The Bookery in the DeWitt Mall, 215 N. Cayuga St., in Ithaca. The book signing also is free and open to the public.

For more information about the Cornell reading, contact Michael Koch at (607)-255-3385 or (607) 255-5018; or e-mail mk64@cornell.edu .