David Rhodes
“He had rediscovered their love in his neighbors. He felt it when he watched Leona and Tim Pikes struggle to earn law degrees after their failure on the farm. He felt it when Grahm walked toward the microphone at American Milk’s annual meeting. He felt it when Jacob pounded on his door in the middle of the night and wanted to talk about Win- nie. . . . He needed to feel it, because without it there was no value.”
from Driftless
As a young man, David Rhodes worked in fields, hospitals, and factories across Iowa, nurturing his love of reading along the way. After receiving an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1971, he published three novels in rapid succession: The Last Fair Deal Going Down (1972), The Easter House (1974), and Rock Island Line (1975). A motorcycle accident in 1976 left him paralyzed from the chest down, which brought a temporary halt to his publishing career. In 2008, he returned to publication with Driftless, which has been heralded as a critical success and the “best work of fiction to come out of the Midwest in many years” (Chicago Tribune). In April 2010 Rhodes received the Guggenheim Fellowship Award. Driftless was selected for the 2010 All Iowa Reads Series and featured on WPR’s Chapter a Day in 2009.
Cosponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Disability Issues Forum
Event
Thursday, October 21, at 7:30 p.m. – “Words in Wisconsin,” Phillips Recital Hall, Haas Fine Arts Center, UW-Eau Claire campus
Selected Works
- Driftless (Milkweed Editions, 2008)
- Rock Island Line (Harper & Row, 1975)
- The Easter House (Harper & Row, 1974)
- The Last Fair Deal Going Down (Atlantic/Little, Brown, 1972)
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