Whether you’re a closet novelist or a writer who aspires to see your name in print, you need to check out an upcoming lecture and book signing.

Richard Bausch, author of Rare and Endangered Species, will give a lecture and read from his book Thursday night in the South Ballroom at 7:30 p.m. He will also sign copies of the book at Big Table Books Friday afternoon from 4 to 5 p.m.

Bausch is the heritage professor of writing, an emeritus position created last year, at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. His 100-or-so-page work of fiction includes eight stories and a novella entitled “Rare and Endangered Species,” from which, obviously enough, the book’s title comes.

Bausch contends that his imagination is wholly responsible for his new book. He didn’t sneak any ideas from real life, neither his own or anybody else’s, a trait necessary for all authors who aspire to get published.

“I make it all up,” he explained. “Sometimes I use a place or a composite of people I know, but I’m a very good liar. Every writer needs to be a good liar, first thing.”

He also says that while others may see commonalities in the eight stories and novella that make up Rare and Endangered Species, he scoffs at the idea. He’s definitely more concerned with putting his thoughts on paper.

“There’s really no connection except that they’re all by me,” Bausch said. “People say there are certain themes that keep showing up, and I’m interested in writing about families, but I try not to think about that. I just write the stories.”

And he has honed his craft expertly. Bausch has a way of taking regular people and situations and molding them into powerful, thought-provoking tales.

“They’re ordinary people confronting an explosive moment of their lives,” said Stephen Pett, associate professor of English and a friend of Bausch. “[The stories] cover a wide range of kinds of people and experiences. That’s what makes it so commanding.”

Sue Tatro, a graduate student in English, agreed that Bausch’s attention to detail made for stories that were “heartbreaking and funny at the same time,” she said. “He could see the folding-out of the tiniest moment. He could take an object and see whole stories in that object. It’s not just that he sees all potential in a moment, but he sees all potential in every thing.”

Tatro also believes that Bausch’s appeal bridges the gap that separates parents and children. “He has a sense of nuances between generations,” she explained. “It can have to do with someone our ages with children; it can also have to do with our parents.”

Bausch, who Tatro describes as a “master with dialogue,” keeps busy during the day by teaching a few classes at George Mason. And while his writing career is starting to spark and class takes up a lot of his time, he wants to stay in school and keep being called “professor” for a long time to come.

“I wouldn’t ever not teach,” Bausch said. “I’d like to do less of it, but I could never give it up completely. And writing — it’s such a habit. It’s so ingrained in me that I can’t not do it.”

The lecture and reading is located in the South Ballroom of the Memorial Union; it starts at 7:30 p.m. Big Table Books is located at 330 Main St. in downtown Ames; that signing is from 4 to 5 p.m.

For more info about Big Table, please call 232-8976. Both readings are free and open to the public.