Nick Reding to read for Writing Program Reading Series April 16

April 3, 2009 -- Author and St. Louis native Nick Reding will read from his work at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 16, for Washington University's Writing Program in Arts & Sciences.

The talk — part of The Writing Program's spring Reading Series — is free and open to the public and takes place in Hurst Lounge, Room 201, Duncker Hall, on the university's Danforth Campus. A reception and book signing will immediately follow.

Duncker Hall is located at the northwest corner of Brookings Quadrangle, near the intersection of Brookings and Hoyt drives. For more information, call (314) 935-7130 or email David Schuman at dschuman@wustl.edu.

A writer of literary nonfiction, Reding is author of The Last Cowboys at the End of the World: The Story of the Gauchos of Patagonia (2001). The book explores a semi-nomadic culture that was once thought to have all put disappeared at the end of the 19th century. Yet in 1995, while working as a flyfishing guide in Chilean Patagonia — one of the least-populated regions in the world — Reding found a himself amidst gauchos, some as young as 13, who still live largely alone with their herds, hours on horseback from the nearest neighbors. Three years later Reding quit his job as a magazine editor and returned to the region for a 10-month stay, chronicling his experiences with novelistic drive and detail.

Born in St. Louis, Reding earned his B.A. in Creative Writing and English Literature from Northwestern University and his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from New York University, where he has taught undergraduate fiction and poetry. Now a freelance journalist, Reding has published articles in Harper's, Outside and Food and Wine magazines, among others. His most recent book is the forthcoming Methland, about the methamphetamine epidemic in small towns. He currently resides in New York.