CANTON -- The St. Lawrence University Writers Series will welcome author Lorrie Moore back to her alma mater for a reading at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 23, in Eben Holden.

Moore is the author of three novels and four short story collections, including her most recent publication Bark. She has also worked as an editor for Best American Short Stories 2005. It was in that same year that she was presented with an honorary degree from St. Lawrence University. In 2006, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

One of America’s most prolific writers, Joyce Carol Oates, said of Bark: “The longest, aptly titled ‘Wings,’ takes us on a rare flight of self-transcendence; the others are rueful journeys of self-discovery in which moments of recognition bring jolts like electric shocks.”

David Gates of The New York Times wrote, “Probably no writer since Nabokov has been as language-obsessed as Moore, but while Nabokov saw himself as an enchanter, a Prospero of words reveling in his power, Moore is a darker spirit, skeptical of language even as she makes it do tricks."

Other works by Moore include short story collections Self-Help, Like Life and Birds of America as well as her novels Anagrams, Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? and The Gate at the Stairs. Moore received a master’s degree in fine art from Cornell University, and she has since taught at several universities, including Princeton, New York University, University of Wisconsin-Madison and her current position as the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt professor of English at Vanderbilt University.

Info: 229-5125.