Tales of reluctant race horses and maverick realtors delighted a large audience at the Brunnier Art Museum on Thursday night.

Jane Smiley, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and former professor of English at Iowa State, returned to Iowa State to celebrate her birthday and read selections from coming works.

Smiley read two excerpts from her unpublished works, “For Those of You Wondering What I’ve Been Up to Since I Moved to California” and “Good Faith.”

“Two Gals, a Horse and the Baby Jesus,” was the first. It is a nonfiction piece about one of her racing horses, Hornblower.

The story details the trials and tribulations of racing a “noncommitted” but potentially fast horse, including consulting both a horse astrology Web page and an “animal communicator.”

Smiley said the animal communicator had criticized her choice of name for the horse, claiming that the vibes of the name were too low.

“He said my talents did not lie in that area,” she said.

“Two Gals, a Horse, and the Baby Jesus” is supposed to be an atypical horse racing story, she said.

“I didn’t want to write the typical horse racing book where the horse ends up being a big winner.”

The book should be finished in the coming month, and ready for publication later this year, she said.

The second piece was an excerpt from “Good Faith,” a novel about the Reagan era that takes place during 1982.

“It was when liberals in America got their first real dose of what was coming,” she said.

The excerpt told of realtors and developers during the savings and loan crisis, and focused on “a realtor in a small, very pretty town off the beaten path.”

In the portion she read, the realtor has to make a difficult sale to a couple that is upset about the condition of the house they are planning to buy. Smiley said she had to do a lot of research to complete this novel, and talked to many lawyers.

“I’ve never enjoyed research more in my whole life,” she said.

“Good Faith” is nearly in its final form, and should be ready for publication sometime in the next year, she said.

Smiley said that including just enough detail to let the uninformed reader know what is going on in the story, and still interest those who have a working knowledge of the story, is a wobbly path.

“A lot of times I write about worlds and places that people are not familiar with,” she said.

At the end of her reading, Smiley was serenaded with “Happy Birthday” by the crowd of more than 215 people and presented with a polka-dotted raspberry cake.

Smiley said she was afraid that everyone back home would forget her birthday, and was grateful that this Iowa crowd remembered.

Bethany Moore, junior in English education, said she enjoyed the reading.

“I read ‘A Thousand Acres’ and I really enjoyed it. I thought this would be a good opportunity to see and meet the author.”

Moore said she hadn’t read any of Smiley’s other works, so it was a pleasure to hear some of her forthcoming pieces.

“I’m planning on reading ‘Two Gals, a Horse, and the Baby Jesus’ when it comes out,” she said.

Smiley will participate in a discussion on Iowa writers at 2 p.m. Friday in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union.