A school library altercation sparks consequences for an entire community.
The year is 2015–Obama is president, Trump a nascent candidate. In the college town of Horace, Oregon, white students taunt a Black student in a public high school library. As the school scrambles to address the “library incident,” the fallout leads to unexpected and cascading consequences for a handful of students, families, and faculty. Woody, the guidance counselor, is thrust into the spotlight after a career spent on the school’s sleepy sidelines. Lark, a struggling student, navigates the complicated reshuffling of her closest relationships. Stefanie, a parent, is stuck between protecting her child and letting him find his own way, whatever the consequence. Closer tells the story of one moment reverberating in larger and larger ripples across a community. Friendships are strained, marriages are tested, and families are threatened by sudden violence. With the death of a student, the survivors are left to reckon with the fault lines in their most intimate relationships and how they can move closer.
Author Bio:
Miriam Gershow is the author of Survival Tips: Stories and The Local News, a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. Her writing is featured in The Georgia Review, Gulf Coast, and Black Warrior Review, among other journals. She is the recipient of an Oregon Literary Fellowship and a Fiction Fellowship from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing.
Questions? Contact beccar@dpls.lib.or.us
AGE GROUP: | Adult |
EVENT TYPE: | Write Here | Adult Program |
The two-story, 38,855-square-foot library opened in 1998 and features exposed beams and high ceilings, complemented with eastward-facing windows, looking over Bend’s civic square.
