Becoming American

	The Big Read/ Attleboro’s 1 ABC announces:    Matthew Pearl, Author...                Coming to Attleboro!

       Author of : 

                              “The Dante Club” 

                              “The Poe Shadow” 

                                               “The Last Dickens”

Presenting:

“Happy at Last: the true story behind Poe’s death”

Wednesday, October 7^th , 7:00 p.m.

Thatcher School – 7 James St., Attleboro

No admission charge

Matthew graduated from Harvard U. and Yale Law School before becoming a writer of fiction and literary history.  “The Dante Club” and “The Poe Shadow” both made the NYT best sellers list.  “The Last Dickens” published this year.  Matthew teaches creative writing at Harvard and Emerson College as well as lecturing in law and literature at Harvard Law School.  Matthew is listed on Boston’s “Hot List” of up and coming authors.

Register at the Attleboro Public Library

 as well as the Attleboro’s 1 ABC partners: 

Attleboro Arts Museum; Attleboro Council on Aging; Attleboro Public Schools; Bishop Feehan High School; Bristol Community College; Double ACS; The Attleboro YMCA, The Literacy Center; The Sun Chronicle

Registration recommended but not required.

MATTHEW PEARL:  BIO

Graduating from Harvard University in 1997 and Yale Law School in 2000, Matthew Pearl at age 34 has already made a name for himself as a writer.  With an undergraduate degree in English and American literature and no inclination to actually practice law, he began to write his first novel while still a law student. 

Published in 2003, “The Dante Club” was a stunning first-novel success, reached the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated into more than 30 languages.  His second book, “The Poe Shadow” appearing  in 2006, also found its way to the bestseller list.  With the 2009 publication of “The Last Dickens” Matthew Pearl now has three highly regarded novels to his credit.

Writing in a genre located somewhere between pure fiction and literary history, Matthew Pearl takes his underlying academic research seriously and has earned the respect of experts in his fields.  However, he says that, while he is “comfortable and happy” with this approach to fiction, he doesn’t like names for categories or genres of books  but prefers to “think of each book as a book.”  He tells aspiring writers to “choose an arena that is well-suited to your interests” and goes on to say that “literary history is a subject of almost limitless interest to me.”

In addition, he has taught creative writing at Harvard University and Emerson College and been a visiting lecturer in law and literature at Harvard Law School.   He takes pride in his scholarship and says “I also hope to write nonfiction books, and have no plans to write exclusively one type of book.”