Mississippi State University’s English department will welcome Robert Antoni as its next guest writer in the 2004-2005 Visiting Writers Series at 7 p.m. Wednesday in The Colvard Union small auditorium.
Antoni, an award winning Trinidadian author will read from his latest novel Carnival, which he is currently promoting on a book tour. Library Journal, the oldest independent national library publication, has called the book “a unique contemporary novel with shades of violence and damaged love.”
MSU English professor Richard Patteson has studied Antoni for nearly 10 years.
“(Antoni) is a very entertaining reader and the audience should really enjoy his presentation,” Patteson said.
Antoni was raised in the Caribbean and most of his novels tell of this aspect of his life. He is a former creative writing and Caribbean literature teacher at the University of Miami. He quit his job as a professor to be a full-time novelist.
“Divinia Trace” was his breakthrough novel. It won the Commonwealth Writers Prize, as well as an honor from the National Endowment for the Arts.
His novel “My Grandmother’s Erotic Folktales,” however, has been his best selling book to date. It has been translated into French, Spanish and Finnish.
Antoni has a bachelor’s degree from Duke University, a master’s from Johns Hopkins University, and a master’s and doctorate from the University of Iowa Writers Workshop.
Patteson said he is currently working on a book that focuses on Antoni’s literary works entitled “Frontiers of the Word: The Fiction of Robert Antoni.”
“My book will be organized into five chapters. Each chapter will be devoted to one of his books,” Patteson said.
Patteson said the purpose of the Visiting Writers Series is to “acquaint students, faculty and the community with the invited writers.”