Antioch College and The Antioch Review invite the community to hear from award winning author and avid birder, Kent Nelson, at the Glen Helen Nature Preserve on April 21.

In 2014, Nelson was awarded the Drue Heinz Award, among the most coveted in the short story world, for a collection of short fiction titled, “The Spirit Bird.” The Antioch Review, one of the oldest, continuously publishing literary magazines in America, has been publishing his work regularly since 2004. “Writing stories for me is exploration and discovery,” explained Nelson. In most of his stories, he has no idea of what will transpire or how the tales will end.

“I started all these stories with a character in a place and figured out from there where the story might go,” he said. “This required writing the first page ten or so times, often more, as I made new decisions about the character and what might happen.”

Nelson’s stories are set in the American West, a territory richly populated by writers like Cormac McCarthy, Annie Prouxl and Rick DeMarinis. The elusive spirit bird in his work is a metaphor for what we have lost, for what we hope for, and for what we don’t know about ourselves. The characters in The Spirit Bird are compelled to seek beyond their own horizon and as his stories unfold, the search becomes the expression of their desires.

Born in Cincinnati and raised in Colorado Springs, Nelson now lives in Ouray, Colorado. He is an avid bird watcher who has identified 757 North American species in his travels to Costa Rica, Ecuador, Australia, and New Zealand.Nelson will read from this new collection and talk about his birding experiences on April 21, 2015 at 7:00 pm in the Glen Helen Auditorium, 405 Corry Street, Yellow Springs, Ohio. The reading is free and open to the public.