A fter a long absence, dearly missed award winning writer and former ISU professor Jane Smiley returns to visit and share some of her work with the ISU community.

Smiley will be reading a piece of her choosing at the Brunnier Gallery in the Scheman Building at 7 p.m. on Thursday as a highlight for the ISU Creative Writing Program¡s Imagining the LandŒ poetry and literature series.

This series focuses on the effect of place and geographical region on culture and narratives.

In addition to the reading, a birthday celebration for the esteemed author will take place, as the day of the reading and her birthday coincide.

In addition to her Thursday night reading, Smiley will also be presenting at the Third Annual Iowa Writer’s Celebration event, Voices from the Prairie,Œ at 2 p.m. on Friday in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union.

The program will open with an Introduction from Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack, followed by a panel discussion and book signing.

Smiley will be accompanied by John Cole, director of the National Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, on Friday to aid in discussion about writing in the Midwest.

The chance to see two Smiley presentations is a boon in which students should take part, says Neil Nakadate, university professor of English.

Whenever possible, students should take advantage of the opportunities to learn from anyone whose work is interesting and important, and speaks to issues important to Iowa and the world,Œ he says. Smiley is intelligent, provocative, sometimes even funny.Œ

Nakadate, who has done a critical study of Smiley¡s work and knew her during her years at Iowa State, says she has been missed on a professional and personal level by those who worked with her.

She is a good friend and former colleague whose presence in my department and at Iowa State is missed,Πhe says.

Smiley published many of her novels as a professor in the ISU English department. She remained on staff from 1981 to 1992, when she retired and later moved to California to become a full-time professional writer.

Stephen Pett, associate professor of English, says an occasion to meet Smiley is a rare opportunity with one of the best in the field.

It¡s a chance to see one of the most esteemed writers of the decade,Œ Pett says.

Over the years, Smiley has established a well-regarded fame for herself as a professional writer. She has published ten novels and has won several highly prestigious awards. Smiley¡s biggest success came in 1991 when she published an adaptation of Shakespeare¡s King LearŒ set in the farmlands of rural Iowa. She called this story A Thousand Acres,Œ and it spurred much success for the author, earning her the Heartland Award, the National Book Critics¡ Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Later on, it was turned in to a major motion picture starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Jessica Lange.

Another of Jane Smiley¡s novels that became a bestseller, Moo,Œ deals with an agricultural land grant university called Moo U.Œ The setting for this novel closely resembles Iowa State University, but Smiley denies that MooŒ was based on the occurrences or characters from Iowa State. Some university experiences seem to have seeped into her style, though.

Iowa State was the home of Smiley as she began and developed as a writer, Nakadate says ¢ the place where it all started.

This is the department and institution where she taught and wrote when her career as a fiction writer developed,ΠNakadate says.

Aside from harboring the aspiring novelist, the surrounding area provided intrigue for Smiley and her work, Nakadate says.

She was interested in issues of environment and uses of land,Œ he says. These are important to both ISU and the state of Iowa.Œ

Smiley is considered by many of the English faculty to have a keen ability to select appropriate pieces for her public readings.

Readers try to pick what seems appropriate for the moment,Œ says Susan Carlson, English department associate provost. Jane is very good about deciding what she will read.Œ

Recently, Smiley has worked on a wide variety of writing. Her most recent works include a study on Charles Dickens and a yet-to-be-released novel set in the 1980s called Good FaithΠthat deals with land-use issues.

There are many ideas on the success of Smiley¡s career, but Carson feels Smiley¡s ability to take on a wide variety of subjects is the key to her accomplishments.

One of the most interesting things about her career is that she has tackled a new form every time she writes a piece of fiction,ΠCarlson says.

Nakadate says Smiley has been successful with a vast variety of themes, concepts and fields.

She has written both fiction and nonfiction on many subjects, from a 14th century colony in Greenland to Barbie dolls,Œ Nakadate says. She has written successfully in her fiction about a wide range of subjects and issues, from domestic life to agriculture, to the training and racing of Thoroughbred horses.Œ