FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                          May 10, 2005

AUTHOR ANSWERS QUESTIONS FOR NORTHWESTERN CLASS MEMBERS

            Do you have questions you would like to ask your favorite author? Do you think you would ever have the opportunity to ask those questions? Most people would say, “No.”

            For Northwestern Oklahoma State University students in a Recent American Novels class, the answer was a resounding “Yes!”

            The students of Dr. Sandra Petree, assistant professor of English, studied novels by a variety of writers—Sherwood Anderson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Willa Cather, William Faulkner, N. Scott Momaday and Toni Morrison.

But the key book read by the class was “The Rifles” by William T. Vollman, a highly-acclaimed author of several books and numerous nonfiction articles. In 2003, he was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in general nonfiction for “Rising Up and Rising Down,” a seven-volume look at political violence.

            At the end of the spring semester, Petree arranged a telephone interview with Vollman, providing the opportunity for her students to ask him questions about “The Rifles”.

            The opportunity was possible because Petree’s daughter Terrie has worked as Vollman’s assistant for two years. Vollman lives in Sacramento, Calif., and travels extensively around the world to research his books and articles. One work concerned pollution of the Salton Sea in southern California and required several trips into Mexico. Vollman is legally blind so he asked his friend Dr. Larry McCaffery, professor of English at San Diego State University, to help find someone who could drive him into Mexico and serve as a Spanish interpreter. That person turned out to be Terrie Petree, a graduate student who had just completed her master’s degree in English and is fluent in Spanish.

            As part of their final exam project, the students prepared interview questions focusing on ideas they had gleaned from “The Rifles,” set in the 1800s during the exploration of the Northwest Passage. It is the sixth volume in Vollman’s fictional history about European conquest and settlement in North America. The students gathered at Petree’s house for a pizza party prior to the interview.

            “I was very proud of the questions the students came up with and also proud of the way they conducted themselves as they questioned Mr. Vollmann. And his answers were brilliant,” Petree said. “We had not presented our questions in advance, but his responses sounded as though they had been scripted and carefully organized.”

            “He is an extraordinarily articulate man and a gentleman besides. He was careful to respond to each student by name and to offer encouragement to any students who were a little nervous,” Petree said.

            Petree said she hoped to invite Vollman to visit campus sometime in the near future. 

            “He was very kind,” said Dianna Carnagey, senior from Laverne. “I wish we could have talked to him before we studied the novel, because for me, I have more insight into the novel.”

            Kylie Case, sophomore from Mooreland, said, “I thought that Mr. Vollman was quite impressive. I hope to meet him some day.”

            Meagan Masters, junior from Kiowa, Kan., agreed, “The opportunity to interview Mr. Vollmann was really an honor. The experience is one I will never forget.”

            “It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Lindsay Headlee, Alva sophomore. “The answers to our questions made me think. After the interview I couldn’t sleep. The memory of this event will stay with me for the rest of my life.”

            Ty McBride, junior from Hillsdale, selected “The Rifles” as his term paper topic.

            “This semester I’ve spent hundreds of hours reading, writing and researching William T. Vollmann. His attitude toward research encouraged me to do more as a writer,” McBride said. “He believes that writing a good book is something worth dying for and reading a good book should also be worth risk. As a student of literature I find that his attitude is encouraging and hopeful for both writers and readers.”

-NW-

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