Elizabeth Berg: MWW Community Event

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Midwest Writers Workshop

Features Author Elizabeth Berg 

for Special Presentation, Public Invited

Berg, ElizabethAcclaimed, bestselling author Elizabeth Berg will be the guest speaker during a special program at this year’s Midwest Writers Workshop (MWW) on the Ball State University campus. Berg’s presentation is set for 7 p.m. Friday, July 25 in Pruis Hall. The program is open to the public. Admission is free, but registration through Eventbrite is recommended. (Those registered for MWW14 are already registered!)

Eventbrite - ELIZABETH BERG  Behind the Page: An Intimate Look at a Writer's Life

Berg will speak about her life as a writer, starting from when she was five years old up to the present, when, even now, she says, “she is still five, really.”

The author of more than 20 novels, her latest Tapestry of Fortunes, Berg says she’s always felt the urge to write, and was just nine years old when she submitted her first piece of writing—a poem—for publication. It was rejected, which “hurt her feelings,” and that is why she waited 25 years before submitting her next piece. By then, as a mother of two young children, she sent an essay to Parents magazine. It was accepted, and the rest is history.

She credits her 10 years as a registered nurse as a kind of school for writing. Taking care of patients taught her about human nature, she says, particularly “about hope and fear and love and loss and regret and triumph and especially about relationships—all things that I tend to focus on in my work.”

Berg is often described as a storyteller with the ability to find the extraordinary in the mundane and to connect with readers by understanding what’s in their heart. It is often said that curling up with a Berg book is like spending time with an old friend. Entertainment Weekly has said, “Berg’s writing is to literature what Chopin’s études are to music—measured, delicate, and impossible to walk away from until their completion.”

Many of Berg’s books have been on the New York Times Bestseller list. Durable Goods and Joy School were both selected as one of the American Library Association’s best books of the year. Talk Before Sleep was shortlisted for the Abby (American Bookseller’s Book of the Year). Open House was an Oprah’s Book Club Selection. In 1997, Elizabeth won the New England Booksellers Award for her body of work.

Her book, The Art of Mending, was a choice for South Dakota’s “One Book.” She was made a “literary light” by the Boston Public Library, has been honored by the Chicago Public Library, and was given the AMC Cancer Research Center’s Illuminator Award for shedding light on breast cancer resulting in increased public awareness and concern. She adapted her novel The Pull of the Moon into a play, which has twice been performed in Chicago to sold-out audiences. Her article on a cooking school in Positano, Italy, which appeared in National Geographic Traveler magazine, won a NATJA award (North American Travel Journalists Association) and has been nominated for a Lowell Thomas award, results pending. Her books have been translated into 27 languages.

Her next book, The Bird Lover, is scheduled for release in the spring of 2015.

Since its founding in 1973, MWW has been devoted to providing writers of all stages in their career the opportunity to improve their craft, to associate with highly credentialed professionals, and to network with other writers. This is the first year that MWW is offering one of its conference’s events to the entire community. It is pleased to invite the general public to welcome the delightful Elizabeth Berg to Ball State.

Following her keynote address, many of her books will be available for purchase and she will have a book signing.

— Janis Thornton

Elizabeth Berg poster

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