'It Happened in High School': Authors James Magruder, Larry Doyle Discuss Their Journeys as Writers, Nov. 18

November 5, 2009
Contact: University Relations
Phone: 410.837.5739

Authors James Magruder (Sugarless) and Larry Doyle (I Love You, Beth Cooper) will continue UB's Fall M.F.A. Reading Series on Wednesday, Nov. 18 at 7:30 p.m. with a night of readings and conversation entitled "It Happened in High School: A Night of Fiction, Conversation & Trigonometry Homework." The two will discuss the journeys of their books from idea to the bookstore—and, in Doyle's case, from bookstore to movie theaters. The event is free and open to the public.

Unless otherwise indicated, all events in the Fall Reading Series will take place in the Bogomolny Room in the UB Student Center, 21 W. Mt. Royal Ave.

Magruder, based in Baltimore, has written about a high school boy and his friends in a bland 1970s Chicago suburb and their tumble into early adulthood. Sugarless, his debut, has been called "remarkable ... at once tender and satirical" by Richard McCann, author of Mother of Sorrows. Tony Kushner, playwright of Angels in America, has declared him "a writer of immense gifts, with a voice—smart, playful, lyrical, subtle, unsparing—utterly unlike anyone else's.”

Doyle, a New Yorker humor columnist and former writer for The Simpsons, debuted as a novelist with Beth Cooper. The book, about a teenager and his declaration of love for the title character during his graduation speech, was called an "instant classic, right up there with great end-of-school landmarks like American Graffiti and Dazed and Confused" by Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children. Esquire declared it "hilarious," and Newsweek found it "fresh, sweet, seriously funny." Doyle's next book, Go Mutants (also poised to become a feature film), is due out next summer. He lives near Baltimore.

The final event in the Fall 2009 M.F.A. Reading Series will be the M.F.A. Student Reading and Book Arts Party, on Thursday, Dec. 17, at 8 p.m. Details are forthcoming.    

The series is sponsored by the Yale Gordon College of Liberal Arts Advisory Council and presented by the M.F.A. in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts of the University of Baltimore’s School of Communications Design. For more information, contact Jaye Crooks at 410.837.6022 or jcrooks@ubalt.edu.

The University of Baltimore is a member of the University System of Maryland and comprises the School of Law, the Yale Gordon College of Liberal Arts and the Merrick School of Business.