Nino Ricci speaking at BSC last year.

Acclaimed Canadian Novelist to Teach in Fall

Posted on April 28, 2009 - Permalink
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A fortunate group of students will get to work closely with acclaimed Canadian novelist Nino Ricci, who will be visiting as part of BSC's Canadian Studies Program.

Mr. Ricci will be in residence for the fall term, and will be teaching a fiction writing workshop for BSC undergraduates. The course is already fully enrolled.

"Having a writer of Nino Ricci's stature on campus is a great opportunity for our students - any chance students have to connect powerful literature to a person makes writing at once more real and more interesting," said Dr. John Kucich, chairman of the English department.

Mr. Ricci's first novel, Lives of the Saints (1991), was not only a great commercial success, it earned the Books in Canada First Novel Award, the 1990 Governor General's Award for Fiction, and a Betty Trask Award. The book was the first in his best-selling trilogy of autobiographical novels, that includes In a Glass House (1995), and Where She Has Gone (1998).

Among many subsquent achievements, Mr. Ricci was the writer-in-residence at the University of Windsor for the 2005-06 academic year.

Dr. Kathleen Vejvoda, assistant professor of English, said Mr. Ricci's arrival was great news for BSC students interested in pursuing careers in writing.

"This is an amazing and once in a lifetime opportunity for our students to work with a writer with an international reputation," she said.

She added that many institutions would have limited Mr. Ricci's workshop to graduate students.

"But our department's commitment to student-centered learning, and Nino's interest in teaching undergraduates, has resulted in something special for the students of Southeastern Massachusetts," Dr. Vejvoda said.

Dr. Kucich saw even larger implications in Mr. Ricci's time at BSC.

"His arrival on campus will also help validate the really extraordinary writing our own students have been doing in the past few years," he said. "Professor Ricci will find a vibrant, thriving community of writers on campus, and I have no doubt he'll serve as a role model and mentor for many." (John Winters, Office of Institutional Communications; file photo)