A lecture and reading by Jeffrey Ford

I had the pleasure today of seeing and hearing acclaimed and award-winning author Jeffrey Ford not once today, but twice!

A prolific author in Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Mystery, Jeffrey Ford has written novels, such as The Shadow Year: A Novel, The Girl in the Glass : A Novel, and The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque : A Novel, along with collections of short stories, such as The Drowned Life (P.S.) and The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant: And Other Stories, and The Well-Built City trilogy. He’s won numerous awards, and lives and teaches in southern New Jersey.

A former student of novelist, critic, and professor John Gardner, today Jeffrey Ford first gave a lecture titled “Beyond Moral Fiction: The Art of John Gardner.” In this lecture Ford summarized the brilliant, chaotic, and tragic life of John Gardner, and focused in particular on Gardner’s controversial book On Moral Fiction, a book which, when it was first published, galvanized and divided critics and authors alike. Even today, the discussion of whether or not authors should aspire to write moral fiction generated heated debate and discussion. This lecture was enthusiastically received and generated discussions long after the lecture concluded.

Later, Ford also gave a reading, where he shared with a large and diverse audience his short story “Daddy Longlegs of the Evening,” in the short fiction anthology Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy.

Here’s award-winning horror writer Nancy Holder introducing Jeffrey Ford:

And here’s Jeffrey Ford, weaving his story of a spider that crawls into a boy’s ear and the ensuing havoc created when it remaps the boy’s neural pathways:

If you wonder how Ford’s tale of creepy horror affected the audience, well, here’s an example:

I managed to leave with my wits intact and a signed copy of The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant: And Other Stories.

What a fantastic (in all meanings of the word) day!