HP101719

24 | October 17, 2019 | The highland park landmark life & arts
hplandmarkdaily.com
Highland Park native returns home to talk about short story collection
Doug Rapp
Freelance Reporter
It was a literary homecoming
of sorts.
Peter Orner, a prize-winning
writer from Highland
Park, spoke at the Highland
Park Public Library
Tuesday night. Sponsored
by the Baum Family Fund,
the event was part of the
library’s Meet The Author!
Series and included local
author Francine Arenson
Dickman with moderator
Alex Gordon.
“We have hosted Peter
on previous occasions
and were thrilled to welcome
him back,” said Beth
Keller, marketing specialist
with the library. “He’s
such an accomplished author
and the fact that he
is a Highland Park native
made it even more special
to be able to include him in
Upcoming Meet-the-
Author events at the
Highland Park Public
Library
• Oct. 28, Nelson and
Alex DeMille, “The
Deserter”
• Oct. 31, Heather
Morris, “Cilka’s
Journey”
• Nov. 14, Landis Blair,
“The Envious Siblings:
And Other Morbid
Nursery Rhymes”
our author series.
Orner, a graduate of
Highland Park High
School, now teaches at
Dartmouth College. The
author of three story collections,
two novels and
essay collection, he was
promoting his latest collection,
“Maggie Brown
& Others,” which Booklist
called “hilarious and poignant.”
Dickman was promoting
her novel, “Chuckerman
Makes A Movie,” a comedic
novel about a man who
tries to turn his life around
by writing a movie about
his childhood.
When Orner was asked
why his latest book was a
collection of short stories,
he said he feels like he’s
“always defending the
short story” against demand
for novels and nonfiction.
“A brief story can have a
lot of power,” Orner said,
saying the short-story form
shouldn’t be dismissed.
He said “Maggie Brown
& Others,” which contains
44 stories, is not a tight
collection but goes in different
directions with lots
of characters.
Orner said his stories
start with a place and
that “geography becomes
mythical.”
Even though his Highland
Park childhood home
is gone, it still exists in
memory—and memory
plus place creates “a fusion
for fiction,” he said.
Having taught at universities
all over the U.S.,
Orner spent many years
in California teaching at
San Francisco State University.
He said he had
to move away from California
to write about it,
similar to moving away
from the Midwest, which
he revisits in a few stories
in “Maggie Brown & Others.”
“[It] is a novella and
story collection set in California,
Chicago, Highland
Park and Massachusetts,”
Orner said in an interview
with The Landmark. “It’s
about memory and the
stories we can’t seem to
ever shake, and about the
people we can’t seem to
forget, even when we want
to.”
Orner said he completed
many of these stories while
he and his family lived in
Namibia in 2017-2018,
when he was a Fulbright
Scholar. He said he took
the time to concentrate on
the unfinished stories that
eventually became his latest
collection.
As for what he’s working
on next, Orner said he
was a bit “superstitious” to
talk about works in progress
but said maybe fiction
related to Los Angeles and
another book of essays.
The former Guggenheim
Fellowship recipient
then read one of his stories
titled “Two Lawyers,”
about a lawyer who awkwardly
seduces the widow
of his deceased friend.
Early in the reading,
someone accidentally hit
the dimmer switch and the
lights lowered to darkness
in the auditorium.
“Well, that was dramatic,”
Orner said, drawing
laughs as the lights went
back up.
During the question
and answer session, Orner
credited many Highland
Park High School teachers
with setting him on the
path to become a writer,
including retired teacher
Hazel Herzog, who was in
attendance.
Orner was asked how it
felt to return to Namibia
since he had lived there in
the 1990s as well. He said
it was good to see how the
country progressed and to
connect with fellow teachers
he knew there.
“It was incredibly gratifying
to return,” Orner
said.
Judging by the enthusiastic
reception he received
at the book signing, the
old friends congregating
around him and Orner’s
enduring smile, it must
have been incredibly gratifying
to return to Highland
Park as well.
847.432.5150 | streetlevelstudio.com/unique
The Art Center to welcome documentary
filmmaker Bob Hercules
Submitted Content
As part of their continuing
Sunday Salon series
of events, The Art Center
Highland Park will present
Bob Hercules, documentary
producer and director
on Sunday, Nov. 17 at 2
p.m.
This free event will include
scenes and selections
from several of his
films.
“We picked Bob for this
series after I met him at
his film, ‘Maya Angelou:
And Still I Rise’, during
a screening at the Renaissance
Place Cinema in
Highland Park,” The Art
Center Executive Director
James Lynch said. “He
struck me as an inspiring
story teller.”
The Sunday Salon series
is new to TACHP and will
feature artist panels in discussion,
dance troupes like
Chicago’s Visceral Dance
Company, play and poetry
readings and more programs
designed to interest
and entertain the community.
1
Hercules lives in Evanston
and works in and
around Chicagoland, except
when he’s on location,
as he was when he directed
the film “The Gate,
The Dawn of the Baha’i
Faith,” with locations in
southern Spain. His work
has been seen widely on
PBS, Discovery Channel,
IFC, TLC and in film festivals
around the world.
He is also co-owner of
Media Process Group, a
Chicago-based production
company.