Lori Rader-Day is reading this Tuesday, November 4 at 5 pm at the Gage Gallery. Ms. Rader-Day is a Roosevelt University MFA graduate, so we are particularly excited about her success and reading. Here a few facts to help you get to know her a little better before the reading Tuesday…
Five Facts for your Friday about Lori Rader-Day
- New York Times bestselling author, Jodi Piccoult, picked Ms. Rader-Day’s short story for Good Housekeeping’s first short story contest in 2010. Lori Rader-Day’s first published book, The Black Hour, was published by the Seventh Street Press in 2014. She is also the recipient of the Chris O’Malley Prize in Fiction from The Madison Review, and has had stories published by TimeOut Chicago, Crab Orchard Review, and others.
- She grew up in central Indiana, but has lived in Chicago for a decade now and has become a staple in the literary community. She is the vice president of the Midwest Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America, a member of Sisters in Crime Chicagoland and the International Thriller Writers, was a member of the 2014 debut author class on the Debutante Ball blog, and frequently teaches students through StoryStudio Chicago.
- She finished the first draft of her second book, Little Pretty Things, in August. She wanted to finish it “before anything anyone says about my first book (good or bad) burrows into my brain and stops me cold.”
- She wrote the equivalent of two books during her three years at Roosevelt, and still wishes she had written more. “The best stuff I learned at Roosevelt had to do with discipline…You’ll never be sorry for writing more than you were assigned to write.”
- She wrote The Black Hour while working a full-time job. She is the Office of Communications Director at Northwestern University. She said that she “wrote the first draft between January 2010 and July 2011—and then spent another year revising and getting it right.” Sometimes writing during lunch breaks, before work or even 10,000 words on a cruise in the Caribbean because “That’s vacation to me—having time to write.”
Bonus fact: Ms. Rader-Day found her soundtrack to her second book in Lorde’s “Buzzcut Season”. She acknowledges that this makes her seem that she’s a teenage girl, but alas, she’s not, but admits that “I’m writing about some, and also some women who used to be teen girls and aren’t quite done with it.”
Be sure to stop by the Gage Gallery Tuesday, November 4 at 5 pm for the reading, refreshments being served at 4:30 pm.
One last fun fact, TUESDAY IS ELECTION DAY! Go vote. Only those with “I Voted” stickers will be allowed into the reading. (Not really, but maybe…)
Facts compiled from:
http://www.susannacalkins.com/blog/writing-about-campus-violence-an-interview-with-lori-rader-day
http://www.thedebutanteball.com/author/lori/
And a lovely email interview with Ms. Rader-Day.
Cassandra Morrison is a MFA Candidate in Creative Writing at Roosevelt University and serves as a reader/editor for issue 42 of Oyez Review.
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